The Most Successful African Football Champions In 66 Years

The most successful African football champions in 66 years

The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) football tournament was founded by the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) in 1957 after a 1954 poll in Berne, Switzerland to recognize Africa as a Confederation

Though first hosted in Lisbon, Portugal, where the first Congress was held with the first four participating African nations, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, and South Africa in attendance, the next meeting was held in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.

At this point, all four countries had agreed and adopted statutes that were drafted during the first meeting, according to CAF.

From this point, the first president of the confederation, Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem of Egypt was unanimously appointed, leading to the birth of AFCON.

Egypt since then has played in 26 out of 34 AFCON editions, claiming the trophy seven times. The Egyptian National Team, the Pharaohs defeated Ethiopia 4-0 in the inaugural edition of the games in Sudan, making them the first champions.

Two years after this, they won the championship title for the second time when AFCON was hosted in the country in 1959.

They again claimed the trophy in 1986, giving them a third win followed by a fourth in 1998.

The 2000s saw Egypt reign as one of the most successful countries in the tournament, with wins in 2006, 2008, and 2010.

But that’s the last time the North African nation landed a trophy in the AFCON. The closest they have come since then is in 2017 and 2021 when they emerged as runners-up to Cameroon and Senegal respectively.

Egypt has hosted the AFCON five times since its inception in 1957 and has won the cup three times out of this number.

Cameroon is the next champion after Egypt with 5 titles to its credit, followed by Ghana which has four, and Nigeria which has three.

This year, Egypt is hoping to revive its trophy by beating countries including Mozambique, Ghana, and Cape Verde at the group stages to emerge to the next stage.