Welcome to The Radar — Africa Cup of Nations edition.
What you are about to read is the result of a lot of hard work from our team of writers, data analysts and designers, who have combined to bring you a guide to the 24 players we think you should pay particularly close attention to at the 2023 (yes, it’s being held in 2024) Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, starting on January 13 and finishing on February 11.
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Below, you will find some of the tournament’s best and most exciting players split into three categories.
There are eight superstars — globally renowned players from some of the biggest African footballing nations, all of whom have the ability and experience to dominate the upcoming tournament.
There are eight key men — vital figures within the squads of some of the lesser-fancied nations, although we know that anything can happen in tournament football.
And then there are eight players classed as the next ‘big thing’ — all of them aged 24 or younger and each with the talent to be breakout stars both at AFCON during the next few weeks and in the wider world of football in the future.
You can use the search function to filter by nation, by playing position, by club or by the category they are in. Then just click or tap on the player card to expand it and reveal the full profile, including insight and visual analysis from our team of data journalists.
Sixteen writers from across The Athletic have contributed a total of more than 10,000 words. But don’t be daunted — the beauty of The Radar is you can digest it in bitesize chunks if you prefer, perhaps dipping into it to check out which players to look out for in a particular match when the time comes.
A mid-season Africa Cup of Nations is always a treat — we hope that our first AFCON Radar helps you enjoy it even more.
Mohamed Salah
When looking back through the careers of Egypt’s greatest players, most of them had the privilege of winning the Africa Cup of Nations. Rifaat El Fanagily in 1957 and 1959, Mahmoud El Khatib and Taher Abouzeid in 1986, Hossam Hassan in 1986, 1998 and 2006, plus Mohamed Aboutrika alongside a plethora of talent in 2006 and 2008 to name just a few examples.
Alongside names such as Hassan El Shazly, Ali Abo Gresha, Farouk Gaafar and Hassan Shehata from the late 1960s and early 1970s (when Egypt’s football was impacted by the effects of war), one Egyptian great who didn’t win the Africa Cup of Nations is Ibrahim Hassan. He was suspended for the 1998 edition after showing a middle finger to the Morocco fans in the qualification matches before the tournament. The names above might be unfamiliar to most, but a certain Mohamed Salah will be aware of them.
Despite leading Egypt to their first World Cup finals in 28 years in 2018, Salah hasn’t yet won the Africa Cup of Nations — finishing as a runner-up in both 2017 and 2021.
Salah’s quality as a player and his characteristics are well known. Whether that’s his trademark left-footed curler towards the far post, his ability to use his body orientation to gain an advantage over defenders, his dribbling ability in tight spaces, off-ball movement in and around the penalty area, his pace or his sheer goalscoring prowess.
The Egypt captain’s dedication to improving his game is clear in his studious approach to football, something that is echoed by Liverpool’s manager, Jurgen Klopp. “I saw him playing with Roma and I knew that everything he has will be super-important, super-helpful,” Klopp told beIN Sports in October.
“But we all didn’t know and probably Mo didn’t know in that moment what kind of goal machine he would become. I was impressed very quickly, but now I am still impressed. He wants to improve all the time. That’s what I love most about him.”
One aspect of Salah’s game that has been improving lately is his ability to create chances for his team-mates at Liverpool and the Egyptian national team. This season, Salah’s tally of eight assists in the Premier League — the most in the league alongside Ollie Watkins — means he is averaging 0.41 assists per game, narrowly behind his best assist rate in the Premier League in 2021-22 (0.42).
This improvement is also reflected in the underlying metrics. In terms of expected assists (xA), Salah’s rate of 0.44 xA per game in the Premier League this season is his highest since 2018-19.
Considering the dynamics of Egypt’s national team, Salah’s ability to put his compatriots in goalscoring situations will be of massive importance during this year’s tournament. Starting down the right wing in Rui Vitoria’s 4-3-3, Salah has the licence to roam inside the pitch to play in between the lines and be his team’s creative hub. The Liverpool forward’s switches of play towards Egypt’s left-winger — Trezeguet or Omar Marmoush — or the advancing left-back is something to keep an eye on.
With arguably the best Egypt squad Salah has played in, he will be looking — finally — to lead his country to their eighth title.
Ahmed Walid
Mohammed Kudus
Walk along the streets of Accra and Premier League replica shirts dominate. Chelsea remain popular thanks to Michael Essien’s years in west London. You’ll find many Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal shirts in the Ghanaian capital city, too. Ghanaians love football, predominantly the Premier League, but recent years have seen a new favourite shirt emerge.
Ajax’s third kit from 2021-22 is popular in Ghana not just because the ’Three Little Birds’ design boasts every colour found on the Ghanaian flag, but also because of Mohammed Kudus — the best attacking prospect the country has produced in well over a generation.
Kudus has taken the alternative route to the top of European football, going through the Right to Dream academy in Ghana before heading to Danish club Nordsjaelland and Ajax. Kudus spent three years at the Dutch club, showing promise first as a No 10 before Erik ten Hag experimented with him in central midfield. Alfred Schreuder trialled Kudus as a No 9, while David Moyes has mostly used him as a right-winger at West Ham.
No one is entirely sure of Kudus’ best position, as the Ghanaian can seemingly do it all. Standing at 5ft 9in (177cm) with a stocky frame, he is a powerful and skilful player who can make a mockery of opponents’ pressing schemes. Fire a long pass in his direction and he’ll trap it with little complaint. Give him a defence to break into and he can be incisive with his passing, his pace on the dribble, or a quick skill move.
Need a goal and Kudus can fire powerful shots off his left foot. Need someone to play between the lines and he has the awareness to find space and keep the ball moving even with a defender on his back. A No 10 who is equally dangerous out wide and has plenty of potential as a box-to-box player in a midfield three, the Ghanaian is one of the more press-resistant attacking players in the English top flight. A tally of nine goals in 24 appearances for West Ham means he stands out as a rare Eredivisie import who has almost instantly coped with the increased physicality of the Premier League.
It was a minor triumph for West Ham to secure Kudus’ services for £38.2million ($48m), battling off interest from Brighton & Hove Albion and Liverpool, and questions have already begun about whether Kudus is destined to play for another Champions League club in the future.
Ghana come into this AFCON off the back of a disappointing World Cup campaign where they lost two out of their three group games, including a disappointing reunion with old enemy Uruguay. Yet even there, Kudus shined, scoring twice in a 3-2 victory over South Korea and playing across three positions.
If Ghana are to do anything at this year’s tournament, it will likely stem from Kudus’ attacking work. Expect, therefore, three things to happen in the Ivory Coast this January:
1) Hughton will field Kudus as Ghana’s No 10 and ask him to steer their counter-attacking efforts throughout the tournament.
2) West Ham shirts will be present in the crowd at Ghana’s group games, as Kudus-mania takes over.
3) Many players and fans will copy Kudus’ new goal celebration, where the forward makes his way over to the advertising hoardings and takes a seat facing the pitch after scoring, soaking in adulation from fans behind him.
It looks great in photos, but as Kudus explained, it’s a celebration that caught on by accident. “I’m just taking a deep breath, it means nothing to me, I’m just sitting down to take a deep breath. Yeah, you know (from working hard in the game).”
A hard-working winger who manages to make everything look cool? That’s Kudus.
Carl Anka
Franck Kessie
It wasn’t long ago that Franck Kessie was regarded as one of the most promising central midfielders in Europe, coming into his prime as the engine of a resurgent AC Milan. His career since then hasn’t quite lived up to expectations — he made a forgettable stopover at Barcelona before taking a transfer last summer to Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli — but, at 27, Kessie remains one of Africa’s most gifted midfielders and a veteran centrepiece for the Ivorian hosts.
On the ball, Kessie does a little bit of everything. His tight turns and one-touch layoffs are essential when receiving from the centre-backs in the build-up, but he’s also got a knack for arriving in the opponent’s box to uncork a rifle of a shot. In possession, he uses his body smartly to protect the ball and can zip slide-rule passes with no wind-up on either foot. Although his first touch sometimes goes wobbly, he’s quick to recover, and while he doesn’t break lines quite as often as you might expect from such a technical player, he does like to play a team-mate up the wing with a nicely weighted diagonal.
The moments Kessie looks most alive are when he finds a seam in midfield to carry the ball forward, using his speed and body control to hold off opponents and draw them to the ball before finishing with a crisp forward pass. Those fast breaks were more common at Milan than Barcelona, which may explain his declining club role, but they’re not hard to find in international competition.
The biggest hole in Kessie’s otherwise well-rounded game is that he just isn’t enough of a stopper to be counted on in defensive midfield, especially not as a single pivot. His marking angles can be a little lax, causing him to lose his man more often than he probably should, and he’s not very aggressive in his tackling. However, pair him with, say, Ibrahim Sangare and ball-winning becomes less of a problem — Kessie is free to be the Ivory Coast’s tidy on-ball orchestrator, with the occasional dash of progressive carrying and box-crashing to spice things up.
John Muller
Victor Osimhen
When Victor Osimhen hits a ball, it stays hit.
The Nigerian striker confirmed himself as one of the most dangerous strikers in the world during 2022-23, scoring 26 league goals on the way to winning Serie A’s Golden Boot and a league title for Napoli.
The man in the carbon fibre mask attacks with an intoxicating mix of unbridled ferocity and joyful audacity. The thing that makes Osimhen such a fearsome striker is how he combines his many assets in such a way as to conjure goalscoring chances defences cannot legislate for. It’s not just that he’s stronger and faster than nearly every defender in Italy, Osimhen’s powerful shooting has seen speculative efforts from wide areas still end up in the net.
He is so aerially dominant that several centre-backs have stopped challenging him in the air out of fear of embarrassment. Osimhen doesn’t just leap into the air, he erupts, maximising his hang time by twisting his hips at the apex of his jump — a technique perfected by a certain Cristiano Ronaldo over the years.
Osimhen will lead a phalanx of Nigerian strikers at this year’s tournament, albeit one shorn of Victor Boniface, who picked up an injury just before the tournament started. A hyper-mobile No 9, Osimhen tends to begin attacking moves standing between the opposition centre-backs before annihilating them with his off-ball runs.
His hold-up play should make him a handful for defenders at AFCON and his quick first-time passes — he’s adept at the sort of wall passes and flick-ons that wingers and No 10s love — mean he’ll keep Nigeria’s attack ticking at an excellent pace. He’s also a deceptively good long passer, able to drill a switch pass in such a way that wrong-foots slow-to-react defences.
Osimhen, 25, has 20 goals in 27 caps but has only one appearance at AFCON — playing 45 minutes in the third-place play-off against Tunisia in 2019. He then missed the 2021 edition of the tournament after breaking his cheekbone. If there is a point of concern over his play, it comes from the rate he accumulates injuries from his explosive style of play. Osimhen’s ’never say die’ approach to chasing loose balls and trying to connect with crosses means he often puts his body in danger.
He has the attacking talent of a global superstar but the defensive work rate of a young academy graduate desperate to stay in the team. When it works, he can turn half-chances into goals. When it doesn’t, he runs the risk of pulling a hamstring, breaking his nose, or doing himself some other sort of mischief when battling with a defender.
What lies ahead for the striker? His physical gifts and superb interpretation of space mean he’s the subject of covetous glances around Europe. Chelsea want him, and Bayern Munich were said to have looked at him before buyikng Harry Kane. Osimhen signed a new contract with Napoli in late December that ties him to the club until 2026.
That deal also includes a release clause thought to be in the region of €120million-€130m (£103m-£112m; $132m-$143m). The Nigerian has such talent that he is likely to leave the Italian club while still in his prime, but the prohibitively high price tag and the prickly reputation Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis carries means that day may not arrive soon. A stellar performance at AFCON, though, might help Osimhen’s suitors make up their minds.
Carl Anka
Riyad Mahrez
Riyad Mahrez continues to be the main man and national hero for Algeria and both he and his country head to the Africa Cup of Nations in fine form. Algeria are one of the favourites to lift the trophy for the second time in the last three editions, having last tasted glory in 2019 when Mahrez cemented his massive reputation in his homeland.
The winger already had a huge and passionate following when he curled in a last-gasp free kick to send Algeria to the final four years ago and, at the age of 32, he remains an idol and still generates lofty expectations.
He is essentially the same player who left Manchester City for Saudi Pro League side Al Ahli in the summer, displaying the abilities that he did during nearly a decade in the Premier League. Deployed on the right wing for his new side, as he was for both Manchester City and Leicester City, he continues to carry a huge threat with his dribbling and can cross either along the floor from near the byline or cut back and float one towards the back post.
He continues to take a large percentage of free kicks and corners in the Middle East and a video posted to Twitter during the November international break, taken from Algeria’s friendly with Egypt, shows that he still has arguably the best first touch in world football, allowing him to take a crossfield ball in his stride and continue dribbling all in one movement.
His position as one of Al Ahli’s standout players — even more so than in Manchester — and the different playing style at his new club means his role has changed slightly; he is playing more of those crossfield passes rather than receiving them (City’s wingers very rarely play them, it is usually the responsibility of their defenders or Rodri) and given teams do not sit as deep against Al Ahli as they do against City, Mahrez can also clip more through balls over the top from deeper positions, often looking as much of a playmaker as a winger.
That is often how he plays for Algeria, taking on greater attacking responsibility for his country than at City, where he — like all Pep Guardiola wingers — was instructed to stay high and wide and wait for the ball to reach them.
Having admitted that he initially struggled with the heat in Saudi Arabia, Mahrez has scored seven goals in 10 league games and sits fourth in the assists charts with seven, two behind Cristiano Ronaldo in first. With his numbers as impressive as ever, Mahrez heads to the Ivory Coast hoping to spearhead more national glory for Algeria.
Sam Lee
Sadio Mane
Forever the pride of Bambali. Forever the pride of Senegal. Sadio Mane is still the national team’s main man when it comes to scoring goals. No player has scored more times (40) for Senegal than the 31-year-old.
Even accounting for the silverware he mopped up during his time in Europe, Mane always dreamed of winning AFCON and bringing success to his nation. In 2019, he got painfully close to accomplishing it as Senegal reached the final. A narrow 1-0 defeat to Algeria only strengthened Mane and Senegal’s resolve.
In 2022, they reached the final again. It was another close game — this time against Egypt and his then-Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah. When given the responsibility of scoring the trophy-clinching penalty, Mane did not flinch. It was his destiny. He scored the decisive kick as Senegal triumphed 4-2 in the shootout and claimed their first continental title.
When he returned to Liverpool, Mane helped his club team get close to winning every trophy possible in 2021-22. February began with AFCON victory and ended in Carabao Cup celebrations as Liverpool defeated Chelsea on penalties at Wembley. Liverpool then won the FA Cup, finished as runners-up in the Premier League and narrowly lost the Champions League final against Real Madrid in Paris. The day after, Mane, who had played some of his best football in those final months of the season from a central position (earning him a second-place finish in the Ballon d’Or later that year), announced he would be parting ways with Liverpool.
He joined Bayern Munich for a single season and was part of the DFL-Supercup and Bundesliga title-winning team, a trophy won in the very last game of the 2022-23 campaign. Even though his season at Bayern was bookended with silverware, his time in Bavaria did not go to plan. Last summer, Mane became team-mates with Cristiano Ronaldo after joining Saudi Arabia side Al Nassr.
Mane’s six seasons on Merseyside will always be the standout period of his career. He took on the world and won. Having initially been employed on the right wing in 2016-17, Mane was switched to the left to make space for Salah. He made the transition seamlessly and played with the same relentless effectiveness in one of the best front threes modern football has witnessed.
At AFCON this month, Mane will be keen to remind a global audience what he can do, but more importantly, he will want to bring more success to Senegal and reach a third consecutive final in the process.
Caoimhe O’Neill
Achraf Hakimi
Achraf Hakimi is one of the best right-backs in the world. He is one of Paris Saint-Germain’s most important players, alongside star names, including his close friend, Kylian Mbappe. But for Morocco, he is already regarded as one of their greatest players of all time. He is only 25.
This will be Hakimi’s fourth Africa Cup of Nations tournament, while he has already appeared in two World Cups. It was at the most recent World Cup, in Qatar in 2022, that he cemented his legendary national status. Hakimi was the star name at the heart of a historic run to the semi-finals, where Morocco became the first African or Arab nation to reach the last four.
Hakimi struck the winning penalty in the round-of-16 shootout victory over Spain by scoring an audacious Panenka. It was an iconic moment, not least because Hakimi could have represented Spain at that tournament. He was born in Madrid to Moroccan parents and grew up in a suburb of Getafe.
He represented Morocco at youth level but, in 2017, at under-19 level, he was invited to a Spanish training camp. He felt it was not for him. “There was no concrete reason, just what I felt,” he told Marca in 2022. “It was not what I had grown up with at home, which was Arab culture, Moroccan.”
In truth, he was always likely to represent Morocco. He joined Real Madrid’s academy at the age of seven and while he had the chance to watch Madrid legends, including Raul and Ronaldo Nazario, he and his brothers often went to watch local club Getafe instead, where their hero was Morocco international winger Abdelaziz Barrada.
He was given his debut at Madrid by Zinedine Zidane, but he would fly the nest and make his name elsewhere. He burst onto the scene with an impressive two-year loan at Borussia Dortmund, captivating crowds with his electric pace and lung-busting runs, before joining Inter Milan under Antonio Conte. There, he won the Serie A title and was a crucial part of the team, convincing PSG to sign him for €60million (£51.6m; $65.8m) — taking the total amount spent on him by clubs during his career to more than €100million.
He has excelled at PSG and after his starring role at the Qatar World Cup, was named in FIFA’s Team of the Year. This past year has not been as straightforward; last March he was indicted by a judge over an allegation of rape, which he has strongly denied.
New PSG coach Luis Enrique has elevated Hakimi’s game to another level, encouraging him to step into midfield and building the team’s creative hub around the team’s right flank, where Hakimi resides alongside Ousmane Dembele. Combining his remarkable pace and physicality with technical excellence, he is an attacking asset of exceptional influence. No player has created more chances in open play than Hakimi in this season’s Champions League.
The player he is today is the product of a development that saw him start out as a striker, evolve into a winger, before eventually settling at right-back. But he embodies a modern iteration of the role. “He is not just a right-back,” said Luis Enrique. “But a midfielder and a forward. It’s a delight for a coach to have a player of this quality.”
He will no doubt be influential again for Morocco this month.
Peter Rutzler
Andre Onana
By now, Manchester United fans will be familiar with the debate about Andre Onana — a goalkeeper who was brought to the club by his old Ajax manager Erik ten Hag because of his distribution skills, but who has occasionally been found wanting in terms of shot-stopping in his half-season at Old Trafford.
But that’s small fry compared to the controversy surrounding Onana’s status in Cameroon’s squad. At the World Cup in Qatar last year, Rigobert Song omitted him from the matchday squad for Cameroon’s 3-3 draw with Serbia because of “disciplinary reasons”.
It later became clear that there had been a disagreement about footballing style — Onana wanted to play out from the back and was often seen level with his centre-backs when distributing the ball. In the opening match, a 1-0 defeat to Switzerland, Onana had 26 touches outside his box, the most of any goalkeeper in a World Cup match since Opta’s records began in 1966.
But Song wanted him to keep it simple and played Saudi Arabia-based Devis Epassy instead. Onana promptly announced his international retirement. “Every story, however beautiful it may be, has its end,” he wrote on Twitter. “And my story with the Cameroonian national team has come to an end.”
His retirement lasted nine months. “My desire to represent my country has never wavered since my youth and this aspiration remains an inseparable part of my identity,” he announced in September. “I answer my nation’s call with unshakeable certainty, aware that my return is not only to honour my dream but also to respond to the expectations and support of Cameroonians, who deserve a national team determined to shine.”
Among all this, it was almost forgotten that Onana had previously been banned for 12 months — later reduced to nine months on appeal — for a doping violation. Having moved from Ajax to Inter Milan in 2022, then reaching the Champions League final and moving to Manchester United last summer, it’s been a chaotic period.
Yet Onana remains the most prominent goalkeeper in African football. Goalkeeping at the Africa Cup of Nations has often been criticised, but Cameroon has a fine tradition of shot-stoppers — including Jacques Songo’o, Carlos Kameni and Thomas N’Kono.
Onana is aware of his status, both as a footballing goalkeeper and a rare black goalkeeper at the highest level in Europe. “We don’t have a lot of black goalkeepers at the top and people already have in their mind that black goalkeepers are not confident or they make too many mistakes,” Onana said in 2019.
His nation will hope that the Onana they have for this edition of AFCON is the one who had the best ’goals prevented’ rate in the 2022-23 Champions League. In that form, Onana can take Cameroon a long way.
Carl Anka
Yoane Wissa
Over the past couple of years, Yoane Wissa has been the supporting act to Brentford’s first-choice strike partnership of Ivan Toney and Bryan Mbeumo. He joined the Premier League side in August 2021 for £8.5m ($10.8m) and quickly developed a habit of scoring crucial goals off the bench, including a delightful chip over Alisson in a 3-3 draw with Liverpool. It is remarkable that Wissa is even playing at the highest level when you consider he had to undergo emergency eye surgery following an acid attack in July 2021 that briefly put his move to west London in doubt.
Wissa has struggled at times this season, with extra responsibility on his shoulders while Toney has served a suspension, but he has still directly contributed to six goals in 19 games. Brentford’s head coach Thomas Frank regularly speaks about the forward’s ability to arrive in the box at the perfect moment and this, combined with his dribbling ability, will be crucial for DR Congo’s chances of getting out of Group F, which contains the favourites Morocco, plus Tanzania and Zambia.
If you take a look at the graphic below, you can see how much of a nuisance Wissa is for opposition centre-backs to mark. The 27-year-old is adept at dropping deep to receive the ball, dragging defenders with him before turning and driving up the pitch into dangerous areas. This will invariably help him create space for his international team-mates Gael Kakuta, Cedric Bakambu and Silas Katompa Mvumpa.
Wissa’s record at international level is not spectacular, but this will be his first time competing at AFCON, which should hopefully raise his performance.
Wissa does his best work on the left of a 4-3-3 system at Brentford, which allows him to cut inside and shoot on his stronger right foot. However, he is capable of producing difficult finishes on his weaker side and is good in the air, too. One thing to keep an eye on is Wissa charging down goalkeepers.
He often acts as the pressing trigger for Brentford and has nearly caught out a few goalkeepers attempting to build up play from the back this season. Don’t be surprised if DR Congo end up profiting from this during the tournament. Maybe he is so good at anticipating their movements because he played in goal until he was 12. Now, though, the pressure is on to produce at the other end of the pitch on the biggest stage.
Jay Harris
Yves Bissouma
For the first couple of months of this season, Yves Bissouma was one of the Premier League’s most impressive performers. Since a red card in Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 win at Luton Town in October, he’s not quite hit those same levels, but this campaign has still offered a reminder of how effective Bissouma can be — after a difficult first season at Spurs under Antonio Conte.
Playing in a No 6 role under Ange Postecoglou, Bissouma is entrusted with collecting the ball deep in tight areas, evading the opposition press and starting Tottenham attacks. It’s a role he does very well having often done something similar under Graham Potter at Brighton & Hove Albion. When watching Bissouma, it’s his bravery and confidence in possession that stand out.
Bissouma’s short-range passing is generally on point (he’s not known for spraying long passes) and he’s aggressive in duels and effective at winning the ball back for his team. At times, though, he can be too aggressive and in England has always picked up too many yellow cards. That’s definitely been the case this season: he’s on six already from 15 games, as well as two reds. Bissouma can’t afford that kind of indiscipline at the Africa Cup of Nations or it will be a very short tournament for him.
And this is an AFCON Bissouma will be especially determined to do well in given it’s taking place in the Ivory Coast where he was born and raised. Bissouma only plays for Mali after moving to the Jean-Marc Guillou academy in Bamako when he was 13 and subsequently taking Malian nationality.
He’ll also feel he’s due a big AFCON after not yet quite delivering on the hype that surrounded him at the 2017 tournament. Back then, a 20-year-old Bissouma produced some impressive performances as an attacking midfielder and scored Mali’s equaliser against Uganda in their final group game.
He was tipped for great things for the national team but missed the 2019 tournament with a shoulder injury. A disagreement with the Malian football federation then saw Bissouma not play international football until deciding to come back just in time for the 2021 AFCON, which because of the Covid-19 pandemic was played at the start of 2022.
Bissouma did alright at the tournament, but it was an uninspiring Mali team who struggled to create chances and they exited at the last 16 stage having made very little impact.
Could this be the year Bissouma produces the kind of performances that have made him so highly rated in the Premier League?
He’s expected to play in more of a No 8 role, with Mohamed Camara of Monaco in the No 6 position. Mali are well-stacked in central midfield, with Amadou Haidara, Diadie Samassekou and Aliou Dieng also available to manager Eric Chelle, which should give the team a very solid platform.
So Bissouma will likely get forward more for Mali than we’re used to seeing him do for Spurs. Back in September, for instance, with the No 10 shirt on his back, he produced an outrageous assist against South Sudan that quickly went viral among Spurs fans on social media.
He’ll be hoping for similar moments over the next few weeks.
Charlie Eccleshare
Bebe
From Youssouf M’Changama to Gabadinho Mhango, the last AFCON featured a collection of outrageous long-range goals. There will be a more familiar name trying his luck from distance this time around.
Bebe has had a whirlwind career, catapulted from an orphanage on the outskirts of Lisbon to the bright lights of Manchester United in a matter of months, but things have finally started to settle down for the 33-year-old. A successful loan spell at Real Zaragoza last season helped the winger string together some much-needed game time, while a return to Rayo Vallecano for this campaign has seen him make a handful of vital contributions from the bench.
But Bebe will never lose his footballing flamboyance, a true wildcard in his approach to the game. No one attempts the spectacular quite as relentlessly as him, his La Liga shot map since the start of last season showing 64 shots, around 5.3 per game, from an astonishing average distance of 30.2 yards.
His ability to strike a ball cleanly, on both feet, is unquestionable, but Bebe can be wildly inconsistent with his decision-making. Famously, he blasted four 30+ yard efforts off target against Real Sociedad in 2022, with his team 1-0 down, in a 17-minute cameo from the bench — his manager, Andoni Iraola, hands in pockets, suppressing a wry smile on the touchline.
That kind of unpredictability has seen him limited to a bit-part role at Rayo, but Bebe has managed two stoppage-time goals — an equaliser and a winner — in the league this season, as well as one of his trademark free kicks in the cup. While not exactly dependable, he undoubtedly provides the kind of match-winning magic that can make all the difference in the chaos of knockout football.
It has taken a while for Bebe to reach the international stage having initially played for Portugal’s under-21 side after his shock move to Manchester. Nine years later and with his chances of playing senior international football dwindling, he registered to play for the country of his parents, Cape Verde.
Missing out on last year’s competition was a blow for Bebe, but there is excitement that his flashes of brilliance can inspire another enjoyable run to the knockout stages, only losing out to eventual winners Senegal in 2022.
Bebe never shies away from the responsibility; quite the opposite. In what could be his final showing on the continental stage, expect the unexpected.
Thom Harris
Percy Tau
South Africa: the biggest exporter on the continent. In footballing terms, Percy Tau is their biggest export following his move to Brighton & Hove Albion from Mamelodi Sundowns in the summer of 2018.
He is capable of playing anywhere across the forward line, as an inverted winger off the right, as a No 10 just off the striker, or even in a false nine role. At 5ft 7in (175cm), Tau stands out for his agility and sharpness in advanced spaces; a two-footed player capable of lockpicking a defence, as equally creative as he is a goalscorer.
Tau only made six Brighton first-team appearances, initially hamstrung by work permit problems and loaned out three times to Belgium: to Union Saint-Gilloise, Club Bruges, and Anderlecht. The first of those loans was his best, scoring 13 and assisting 13 in 35 appearances in all competitions, winning club player of the year.
Tau’s minutes at Club Bruges and Anderlecht were limited, with fewer than 2,500 minutes combined, but he still recorded 14 goal involvements (seven goals, seven assists, because this is Tau, after all) at a rate of better than a goal or assist once every two games.
The 29-year-old might be the optimum tournament player in that he has never needed consistent minutes to show quality. His assist for Danny Welbeck against West Ham, on his only Premier League start, evidences that: receive, half-turn, through ball.
Tau joined Al Ahly, Egypt’s most decorated club, in August 2021, and had a turbulent time up until early 2023: head coach Pitso Mosimane, who requested Tau (they worked together at Sundowns), tried to rush him back into the starting lineup as he recovered from injury and Tau’s form suffered.
He still managed eight goals and six assists in 26 appearances before Mosimane was replaced by Marcel Koller ahead of the 2022-23 season. Tau recovered from injury in February 2023 to become one of Al Ahly’s core players, with 10 goal involvements from the right wing in the CAF Champions League, which they won.
In December, he won the 2023 CAF Interclub player of the year, shortly before he helped Al Ahly to a third-place finish at the Club World Cup, scoring in the play-off win over Urawa Reds.
Not many have Tau’s experience in top-level tournaments. He has 48 appearances in the CAF Champions League, scoring 12 and assisting 14, winning it twice. Tau played every minute of AFCON 2019 when South Africa reached the quarter-finals, with a standout assist from a corner in the group stage against Namibia.
Expect his nation to lean on him again in this year’s edition.
Liam Tharme
Bertrand Traore
Bertrand Traore’s importance to Burkina Faso is in stark contrast to his standing at club side Aston Villa. While his future in England is in doubt during the January transfer window — his contract is due to expire at the end of the season and is unlikely to be renewed — he remains his country’s talisman.
Captaining Burkina Faso, Traore has suffered a spate of injuries lately, disrupting any hope of forcing his way into Unai Emery’s plans and consigned, at best, to a late substitute role in games; his 81st-minute entrance against Burnley in August was the earliest he has come on.
Traore has made just six appearances for Villa this season all coming off the bench and equating to just 43 minutes of football. And although he missed Burkina Faso’s September and October fixtures through injury, he has still racked up three times the amount of minutes this season at international level.
The question for Traore, who will be relied upon as a key figure in the tournament, is whether form and fitness — two traits he has struggled to maintain throughout his career — are lacking going into a pivotal period in his career, both for country and his own future. How he performs will likely determine the potential interested suitors at club level.
Traore has, however, been integral to Burkina Faso’s qualifying for the competition and, more recently, the opening two fixtures of World Cup qualification, scoring twice.
His equaliser against Guinea-Bissau was an illustration of the raw skill and power he possesses and what made him one of Africa’s most promising talents when he signed for Chelsea in 2014. Now 28, Traore slinked inside the box, cutting in onto his favoured left foot from the right side, and manipulated the ball through a cluster of Guinea defenders. The entire sequence was done entirely with his left foot which, in some ways, highlighted both his one-foot dependency and how difficult he can be to stop in sporadic moments.
Traore was Burkina Faso’s talisman at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations as they finished third in Morocco. Having made his international debut as a 15-year-old in September 2011, Traore has made 74 appearances for Burkina Faso, scoring 17 goals and now forms a pacy and direct front three, combining with Mohamed Konate and Bournemouth’s Dango Ouattara, who operates from the opposite flank. Traore’s propensity to cut in from the right side is conducive to rotations out-wide and creates the space for overlapping runs from Manchester City graduate Issa Kabore at right-back, who is currently on loan at Luton Town.
Even if the attacking trio is still being refined under Hubert Velud, who took over last year, Burkina Faso play to their strengths, with captain Traore instrumental. If the nation are to progress deep into the tournament, Traore’s rhythm will be crucial, not only in his creative output but in forming the essential partnerships with the players around him.
Jacob Tanswell
Youssef Msakni
It is plausible that if The Radar had been around for the last seven versions of the Africa Cup of Nations, Youssef Msakni would have featured in most of them.
The captain of Tunisia and his nation’s second-most capped player (98 appearances) after Radhi Jaidi (105), he is still one of the side’s key players despite being 33 years old. Born into a football family, Msakni started his career in the youth sides of Stade Tunisien before moving to Esperance Sportive de Tunis in 2008. There, the continent witnessed his rise in the Tunisian league and the CAF Champions League, which he won in 2011.
At 22 years of age, Msakni’s trajectory was expected to continue in Europe, but in January 2013 he joined Qatar’s Al Duhail instead — formerly known as Lekhwiya SC — before switching to Al Arabi — first on loan, then permanently — in the past couple of years. Apart from a brief spell with Belgium’s KAS Eupen, there’s an alternative universe where Msakni’s career could have taken a very different path in Europe.
A skilful forward who can dribble past most defenders and has the vision for creative passes, Msakni’s pace and workload are the only things that have decreased in the past 10 years. On the other hand, the accumulation of experience has made him smarter inside the penalty area, constantly moving off the ball to get into profitable positions.
The Tunisia captain can play across the attack but mainly operates down the left wing for his national side. Msakni usually roams inside to link the play and be closer to the penalty area, where he is a goal threat. Meanwhile, Tunisia’s left-back — Ali Maaloul or Ali Abdi — provides the width with overlapping runs as the No 8 drops deeper to cover the space.
Msakni has tried to win the Africa Cup of Nations seven times, but he has never managed to match the country’s glory of 2004. His best achievement is fourth place in 2019, a tournament in which he thought the Tunisian side were ”the best version” he has played in.
Msakni has myriad memories of the Africa Cup of Nations. His first appearance in 2010 was a disappointing one after he got injured in the first game against Zambia and couldn’t feature in a crucial match versus Cameroon.
His best memory? ”I think the goal against Nigeria (in the last edition) because it was a tough game and we had 12 players who were out because of Covid-19,” he told beIN Sports last month. However, that’s not even his best goal in the competition, which Msakni confirms is the 90th-minute winner against Algeria in 2013.
Wearing the No 7 shirt, Msakni will hope he can play seven games to equal Jaidi’s record and become Tunisia’s most-capped player. To reach that number, the forward has to lead Tunisia to the team’s first target, the semi-finals, but Msakni wants more than that: he wants to win the whole thing.
Ahmed Walid
Patson Daka
What a strange season 2023-24 has been so far for Patson Daka.
The Leicester City striker was expected to be on the move before the end of the summer transfer window following Leicester’s relegation, but the dominoes didn’t fall to allow a move to Bournemouth to happen.
As a result, he started the season as third choice behind Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho in the eyes of new Leicester boss Enzo Maresca and had only played one minute of league football until a month ago.
International football was his sanctuary and his saviour.
He may have been kept in the shadows at Leicester as Maresca rotated between Vardy and Iheanacho, but he remained Zambia’s main man and he justified that tag, with five goals in just three games in October and November. In fact, since bursting onto the international scene in 2015, aged 16, he has scored 18 goals in 40 appearances for his country.
That form for Zambia then came to the fore when he finally got a chance under Maresca in the absence of Vardy and Iheanacho — and he went on to lead the Leicester line in six consecutive games, the longest run in the side of any of Maresca’s strikers so far this season. It worked, too, with Daka scoring four times.
That situation may have changed again when he returns from international duty, but Daka’s focus is now on Zambia as he carries the AFCON hopes of the nation on his shoulders as they look to add to their famous 2012 victory and semi-final appearances in both 1974 and 1994.
Defences in Ivory Coast will be well aware of the threat Daka carries. The 25-year-old has electric pace and is at his best when playing on the shoulder of the last defender, running the channels and exploiting open spaces.
He has been less effective in England, where defences drop a little deeper and deny him that space in which to thrive, but it has been an area of his game he has been working on. Maresca has challenged him to improve both his first touch and his link-up play in Leicester’s one-striker system.
There is scope for improvement and time is on his side to hone his game and become a more all-round striker, but in the short term, he will continue to be a potent and vital weapon for Zambia if they play to his considerable strengths.
Rob Tanner
Serhou Guirassy
Deniz Undav summed it up best: “Serhou’s scoring rate is pure psycho,” the Stuttgart striker said of his team-mate in September after he had netted eight times in four games. A hamstring injury in the following month curbed the madness a little bit, but the Guinea forward still finished the calendar year with a rather sensational tally of 17 goals in 14 Bundesliga matches.
The €9million (£7.7m; $9.8m) Stuttgart spent to make his loan from Rennes permanent last summer was easily one of the deals of the year, even if it comes with a tempting €17.5m release clause that has made the 27-year-old one of the most in-demand strikers in this winter transfer window.
Expected to shine for Guinea at this year’s AFCON, Guirassy picked up an injury in a friendly last week, although he remains in his nation’s squad heading into the tournament and is expected to play some part.
Tall, fast, intelligent and technically proficient, Guirassy is the perfect modern centre-forward. He thrived in last season’s counter-attacking system, scoring 11 goals to save the Swabians from relegation, but has gone to another level now coach Sebastian Hoeness has implemented a fast, aggressive, possession style.
He’s good at finding team-mates (his expected assists are 0.22 per 90 minutes in 2023-24; the same as Borussia Dortmund’s Julian Brandt, who is an outright playmaker), gets plenty of shots away — 3.8 per 90 minutes in the Bundesliga — and excels in one-v-ones with goalkeepers. “Ice cold,” Undav called him. “I don’t seem to need many chances to score,” he’s said of himself, very modestly. Overshooting (pun intended) his expected goals by half a goal suggests he’s been running a little hot, not to say lucky with some of his efforts, but doesn’t take anything away from the precision and beauty of finishes.
It’s worth having a look at his YouTube showreel for the whole array of deft dinks, thunderbolts from outside the box and cool curlers. His finest goal was probably a Paul Gascoigne-type flick over a Mainz defender followed by a headed finish in full flight. He scored two more in that 3-1 win.
Guirassy had never scored more than 10 goals in a season before at Lilles, Amiens and Rennes. Six goals in three years with Cologne, one of them in 2.Bundesliga, didn’t quite scream superstar forward either. Asked to explain his sudden glut of goalscoring, Guirassy said there was “no secret” and “no change” in him, just a bit of luck of being at the right place at the right time. “We have a good coach, a good team, and we trust each other. Trust is crucial in football.”
And so is belief, of course, especially for centre-forwards. Right now, few trust themselves in front of goal as much as Guirassy does. With good reason, too.
Raphael Honigstein
Lamine Camara
It’s rare to see a team storm to a tournament success as conclusively as Senegal did at last year’s Under-20 AFCON tournament. They beat Nigeria 1-0, Mozambique 3-0, Egypt 4-0, Benin 1-0, Tunisia 3-0 and Gambia, in the final, 2-0. Fourteen scored, none conceded.
The star man was midfielder Lamine Camara, who was inevitably named the player of the tournament. That month, he moved from Senegal to France, signing for Ligue 2 outfit Metz. They were promoted at the end of the campaign, where he’s been a regular.
From Camara’s debut half-season at the top level, the standout moment has unquestionably been his remarkable goal away at Monaco, struck from inside his own half. In the social media age, we’ve almost become immune to amazement by those David Beckham-esque goals, but this one felt genuinely different. Not only did Camara win the ball himself, but the strike wasn’t an arcing lob — instead, it was a flat, driven effort that barely went higher than the crossbar on its journey to the net.
Busy when trying to win back possession, but calm and collected with the ball, Camara is potentially a true all-rounder. He dribbles forward sharply from the midfield zone, slaloming past challenges on the break. He’s developed a reputation as a dangerous set-piece taker, whipping balls into the box with his right foot. He hasn’t yet developed into a creator or a regular goalscorer in Ligue 1 — that halfway-line strike remains his only goal of the 2023-24 season — but for Senegal’s youth sides, he has shown composure. He scored the third in a 4-0 World Cup qualification victory over South Sudan in November, whipping the ball across the goalkeeper into the top corner.
Camara has a serious chance of becoming a major star, and this could be his breakout tournament. Less than a year after being the best performer at the under-20 version of the AFCON, Camara is now ready for the real thing.
Michael Cox
Ernest Nuamah
Ernest Appiah Nuamah is the latest Ghanaian prodigy to be developed by the Right to Dream academy before starring for Nordsjaelland in Denmark and earning a move to a bigger club in Europe — following in the footsteps of Mohammed Kudus and Kamaldeen Sulemana. That is not the only thing these three players have in common, though. Nuamah plays on the wing and powerfully surges past opponents just like his international team-mates.
Nuamah’s career has been on a huge upward curve over the past two years. He made his debut for Nordsjaelland in the Danish top flight in April 2022 and, in the following season, became one of their most important players. He scored 15 times in all competitions in 2022-23, which earned him the Superliga’s player of the year and young player of the year awards. During his time with Nordsjaelland, he worked with the former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Ghana midfielder Michael Essien, who is an assistant coach at the club.
Last August, Nordsjaelland sold Nuamah to Belgian side RWD Molenbeek for the not-insignificant fee of €25million (£21.5m; $27.5m). He was then immediately loaned to Lyon, who have the option to buy him permanently for the same amount. American businessman John Textor owns a majority stake in Lyon and RWDM, as well as being a co-owner of Premier League side Crystal Palace, so the deal was structured in this way to help the French club with their financial problems.
Life has been difficult for Lyon this season. They were bottom of the Ligue 1 table at the beginning of December and have already sacked two head coaches. The winger has shown glimpses of his talent across 14 appearances, contributing one goal and an assist, but it is tricky to excel for a struggling team.
Nuamah ranks highly for receiving progressive passes in the French top flight. Only four players receive the ball more often than him, including Paris Saint-Germain forwards Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele. This suggests he likes to stay high up the field and drift into dangerous areas to collect the ball where he can cause havoc.
Nuamah will be hoping to help perennial challengers Ghana win the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time since 1982. Sulemana has been ruled out of the tournament with a hamstring injury, which increases Nuamah’s chances of playing. The winger made his debut for Ghana in an AFCON qualifier against Madagascar last summer and head coach Chris Hughton is finding it challenging to work out his best starting XI.
It might be worth giving the fresh and energetic Nuamah a chance alongside Kudus and Inaki Williams in their opening Group B fixture against Cape Verde. Alternatively, Hughton might prefer to bring him on late in games to take advantage of tiring defences.
Jay Harris
Dango Ouattara
Dango Ouattara is one of those players — so confident, dependable and unerringly composed — that it is hard to believe his age.
Just 20 when he sealed his Premier League move last season, with more than 2,000 minutes of top-flight experience already to his name with French side Lorient, he was brought to Bournemouth to provide regular, game-breaking goals.
Instead, the Burkinabe has been moulded into something more sustainable under Andoni Iraola, emerging as an integral, all-action squad player. Whether by necessity or design, Ouattara’s versatility and energy have been a key force behind his side’s excellent form, plugging the gaps and maintaining the balance across an injury-hit squad.
His touch maps across the last two seasons tell the story: vast coverage of the pitch, with genuine defensive presence, as well as a switch from the right to the left, facilitated by his two-footedness and assurance on the ball.
Ouattara’s performance at left-back in the recent 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest typified his attitude, with Iraola saying that the young winger had never played the position before being drafted in to cover for an injured Milos Kerkez.
His first Premier League start in over two months, Ouattara’s 85 touches were only bettered by one player on the pitch, as he provided a constant outlet with elusive runs down the wing to receive long diagonal passes in behind.
Only Dominic Solanke had more touches in the penalty area, arriving at the back post to take two shots and create a chance with a stood-up cross, while his six ball recoveries and a flying goal-line clearance capped off a commendable defensive display, particularly impressive for a player in unfamiliar territory.
But for his country at AFCON, Ouattara is likely to be restored to an attacking role, with manager Hubert Velud looking to use his quick feet and two-way dribbling to unlock stubborn defences. He has shown flashes of brilliance in a Bournemouth shirt, none more memorable than a last-gasp winner against Tottenham Hotspur last season, effortlessly chopping back onto his weaker right foot before curling past the despairing dive of Hugo Lloris and into the far corner.
Vital assists have come from his ’weaker’ side, too, racing to the byline to fizz in a perfect cutback for Philip Billing against Liverpool last season, before sending Jaidon Anthony through on goal against Nottingham Forest with an incisive through ball from the touchline. Drop Ouattara into most situations on the pitch and he will dig out the solution.
His adaptability and the genuine unpredictability in his attacking play will bring a spark to Burkina Faso’s cup charge — beaten semi-finalists last time out. Already his second Africa Cup of Nations, it is yet more experience for a remarkably well-rounded winger, who, at this rate and at his age, could have at least five more to come.
Thom Harris
Yankuba Minteh
Less than two years ago, Feyenoord winger Yankuba Minteh was playing amateur street football in The Gambia. Since then, he has scored within three minutes of his professional debut, secured a move to Newcastle United, and, while on loan, cemented his position as Dutch champions Feyenoord’s starting right-winger.
Life comes quickly when fans describe you as the fastest player they have ever seen with the ball at their feet.
“(Minteh’s) speed was what immediately stood out,” says Bjorn Wesstrom, sporting director of Danish side Odense Boldklub, who brought Minteh into European football. “And he’s got this ambition to go straight to the goal. Not the corner flag. Straight to the goal.”
In his first game for OB, he scored the winning goal against Copenhagen, the league’s best side. He was such an unknown that he did not even have his name printed on the back of his shirt — with players only given that honour after they are permanently moved into the first-team squad.
That goal showed his key traits — raw speed, directness, and defensive work ethic. Pressing high up the pitch, Minteh capitalised on a mistake and beat the Copenhagen cover, scoring with a first-time finish. It was no flash in the pan — three assists followed in his next two matches.
Newcastle were convinced to spend around €7million (£6m; $7.7m) after just 21 senior appearances and concocted a plan to send him on loan to Feyenoord, with a view to him joining their Premier League squad no earlier than 2024-25.
His strong form has carried through to Feyenoord. Arne Slot led the Dutch giants to their second title in 24 years in 2022-23 — and after losing several key starters, turned to Minteh as the club’s starting right-winger. Across 12 Eredivisie appearances, Minteh is averaging 3.7 shots per game and managing 6.8 shot-creating actions — both elite-level numbers.
But for many Feyenoord fans, the moment that captures him most also showcases his naivety. In an otherwise routine win, his side leading 3-0, Minteh sprinted to reach a ball which most players would have failed to get within 10 yards of. He kept it in and unleashed a shot over the bar.
These are his strengths — but what was not so immediately clear was that he had been carrying a hamstring injury, seemingly aggravated by that burst. He missed two crucial Champions League matches due to the issue.
Maturity was an issue for Minteh at OB — not unusual for a teenager in a new country who had never previously been part of a professional setup. Staff members say this was down to minor frustrations and the challenges of living alone rather than any more serious issues — problems included missing a team curfew after being spotted at a nightclub, getting in a fight with a senior team-mate, and kicking a corner flag to pieces after being substituted — for which he was banned for two weeks by the Danish FA.
Minteh appears to have matured at Feyenoord. His off-ball work has improved, turning from a willing runner into an effective tackler who, among wingers, wins a league-high average of 3.5 challenges each match.
The major improvements needed are to his link-up play — he can sometimes be so desperate to beat a defender that his body works faster than his brain — but that instinct and directness is also what makes him so dangerous.
“I don’t think it’s my duty as a coach to stop him,” says Alm. “If he feels he can make it to the stars, then just back him up and support him.”
He scored against Congo in his debut for The Gambia in September and is the brightest spark in the lowest-ranked team in the tournament.
Jacob Whitehead
Edmond Tapsoba
In Africa, millions of kids play football on the streets or dirt pitches — it’s a familiar scene throughout the continent. Yet only a few of them get to nurture their talent and make it as professional footballers.
At a certain age, the usual dilemma is school versus football, where the former could offer a career to support a family, while the other has a higher ceiling despite being the riskier choice.
Edmond Tapsoba chose the second option, but luckily for him, his start as a teenager at Salitas — having never played organised football until the age of 14 — also allowed him to support his family, as the newly set up local youth academy paid him to play football.
The next step for those who make it as professional footballers in their country is to go abroad and, at only 18 years of age, Tapsoba made the trip to Portugal, specifically second-division side Leixoes. Living abroad without his family was difficult, but the challenge shaped him into the player he is today.
After Leixoes, Tapsoba joined Vitoria Guimaraes before he made a late January move to Bayer Leverkusen in 2020. Throughout the past four years, the Burkina Faso centre-back has been developing and improving his game.
On and off the ball, Tapsoba is never rushed, taking his time in every situation. “I’d like to think I am calm on the ball. That is one of my qualities, a cool head. I am not flustered,” he told The Athletic in 2020. ”I like bringing it out from the back. I’m technically good, I’m quick, my reactions are good and I think my tactical awareness is improving all the time. I am loud out on the pitch and talk a lot. I am at ease playing this way.”
Under Xabi Alonso, Tapsoba is still illustrating these qualities. His ability to play progressive passes — whether vertically to split the opponents’ lines or curved passes towards the touchline — aids Leverkusen’s possession game, especially with the Burkinabe being comfortable with both feet.
Predominantly right-footed, he can receive the ball and control it with his left, too, making it harder to press him. On top of that, Tapsoba carries the ball forward eloquently despite his tall figure.
Off the ball, his pace is needed in certain situations, but Tapsoba’s defensive positioning is one of his key assets. He knows when to be tighter to the attackers and when to drop and defend the space — an aspect of his game that has improved under Alonso, who works a lot on the positioning of the players.
During the last Africa Cup of Nations, Tapsoba made the team of the tournament as Burkina Faso finished in fourth place. This time around, he will be hoping to go one step further than his compatriots did in 2013 when they finished as runners-up to Nigeria.
Ahmed Walid
Omar Marmoush
If you are capable of scoring 44 goals in 28 games in the Egyptian youth system at 17 years of age, you will probably be snapped up by one of the country’s two biggest clubs, El Zamalek or Al Ahly.
However, Omar Marmoush’s footballing journey has taken a very different path.
His impressive performances in Wadi Degla’s youth teams caught the eyes of the first team’s head coach, Patrice Carteron, who gave him his debut in the last game of the 2015-16 season, where Marmoush assisted the winner.
After another season with Degla, the Egyptian departed for Germany, accepting an offer from Wolfsburg in 2017. After first playing for their reserve team, he established himself in Wolfsburg’s senior team in 2022-23 after spending a year and a half on loan to St Pauli and Stuttgart.
Now, Marmoush is Eintracht Frankfurt’s main striker this season after joining on a free transfer in the summer — scoring 12 goals in all competitions so far.
From that central position, the Egypt forward is comfortable playing with his back to goal, constantly dropping to provide a passing option between the lines and linking with his team-mates. His dribbling ability helps him in tight spaces as well, or when roaming towards the wide areas.
Marmoush is adept in terms of attacking the right spaces, always seeking to move off the ball to provide a more threatening passing option in the attacking phase, and his pace comes in handy in this aspect — off the ball when attacking the space and on it once he receives the pass. These offensive characteristics are complemented by his smart movement inside the penalty area, which is visible in his goals for Frankfurt this season.
But despite excelling in that centre-forward role for Dino Toppmoller’s side, it is unlikely he will occupy that position for Egypt at AFCON. Rui Vitoria, Egypt’s manager, has consistently chosen Nantes’ Mostafa Mohamed to spearhead his attacking line in Egypt’s 4-3-3.
This leaves two positions available in the starting line-up for Marmoush. The right wing is home to Egypt’s captain and their most important player, Mohamed Salah, which leaves the left side of Vitoria’s attack.
Occupying the left flank will be either Trezeguet or Marmoush, who started there alternatively in Egypt’s recent games. But even if Trezeguet gets the nod, Marmoush’s attacking profile in terms of his pace, dribbling ability, understanding of space and ability to link the play makes him a versatile option anywhere in Vitoria’s attack, even if he starts games on the bench.
Ahmed Walid
Ousmane Diomande
Just as you would expect from a talented centre-back, Ousmane Diomande’s timing was impeccable.
With Ivory Coast preparing themselves to host AFCON for the first time since 1984, the 20-year-old caught the attention of international manager Jean-Louis Gasset at the opportune moment — only earning his first international cap in September 2023 before securing a spot as one of the youngest members of the 23-man squad for AFCON.
Barely into his twenties, Diomande’s journey has already seen him sign for four clubs across three countries. Having come through the youth teams of Olympic Sport Abobo in Ivory Coast, a 16-year-old Diomande was signed by FC Midtjylland — formerly owned by Brentford’s Matthew Benham — in 2020 before joining Liga Portugal 2 side CD Mafra on loan in August 2022, who are also owned by the Danish club.
Just 13 games later, Diomande’s impressive performances were enough to catch the attention of 19-time Portuguese champions Sporting Lisbon, who ended his loan early and agreed a permanent €7.5million (£6.5m; $8.2m) deal last January.
Diomande has been a first-team regular ever since, starting every game this season as Sporting sit top of the Primeira Liga — built on solid defensive foundations with the lowest expected goals conceded of any side.
Playing on the right of a back three in Ruben Amorim’s possession-dominant 3-4-3 setup, Diomande has all the attributes of a modern-day centre-back.
His composure in possession often belies his age. The Ivorian is rarely flustered when receiving the ball and is a key cog in Sporting’s build-up machine — with only fellow centre-back Goncalo Inacio attempting more open-play passes than Diomande’s 71.3 per 90 this season.
The 20-year-old has the licence to catalyse attacks, capable of pinging a diagonal pass to either flank or stepping out to progress the ball forward himself. Think Liverpool’s Joel Matip if you need a Premier League comparison.
Given Sporting’s dominance in possession, Diomande is not inundated with defensive duties, but he has often had an answer out of possession when the question is asked. Try and beat him in an aerial duel? Good luck — at 6ft 3in (190cm) you would do well to out-jump the Ivorian.
Try and dribble past him? Your call, but with the strength and pace that he has, the numbers suggest you are unlikely to come out with the ball at the other end.
Having only signed permanently for Sporting less than a year ago, Diomande is firmly on the radar of Europe’s elite sides — Premier League clubs are already circling.
With Ivory Coast boasting a strong centre-back cohort for this year’s AFCON — including Roma’s Evan N’Dicka, Nottingham Forest’s Willy Boly, and Bayer Leverkusen’s Odilon Kossounou — Diomande is unlikely to be a nailed-on starter in his home nation, but you can be confident that this will not be his only opportunity to represent his country in a major international tournament, such is his promising talent.
Mark Carey
Franculino Dju
Benfica have a long history when it comes to producing world-class players from their academy, but not many of them leave for free.
Even with first-team opportunities just around the corner, Franculino Dju took his career into his own hands this summer, sealing a move away from the Portuguese champions after four goal-laden seasons across the age groups. Danish side FC Midtjylland took the risk on his potential and are already reaping the rewards.
Seemingly unfazed by taking the next step, Dju has maintained an unerringly consistent scoring rate throughout his early career, scoring 28 times in his first full season for Benfica’s under-19s, averaging a goal every 72 minutes, without a single penalty to boost those numbers.
Since then, the 19-year-old has taken to life in Denmark effortlessly, heading up a rebuild at Midtjylland after a disappointing eighth-placed finish last season.
While not an established starter, with talented South Korean forward Cho Gue-sung nailing down his position at the top of the team, Dju has still chipped in with 12 goals in just over 11 full games in all competitions, including a perfect hat-trick on his Europa Conference League debut against Omonia. Confident on both feet and a real poacher in the penalty area, his penalty box movement makes him a particularly dangerous prospect against tired legs.
Dju is also comfortable on the wing, particularly on the right where he can cut onto his dangerous left foot, and possesses great speed and balance to drive his team forward with powerful, direct runs.
His first goal for his new club typified his forward momentum, receiving the ball on the wing and instantly looking to take on his man, before jinking onto his right and slamming home a near-post finish. With four goals on his weaker side, the lucrative opportunities Dju fashions for himself means a solid contact is usually enough.
All in all, 11 of his 12 Midtjylland goals have fallen in the penalty area, while a selection of intelligent finishes — a confident lob at Viborg, a flying volley against Omonia, and a smart, improvised header away to Silkeborg — point to his natural goalscoring instinct. His debut goal for his country, too, a lasered finish into the bottom corner to seal a record qualification campaign for Guinea Bissau, proved that Dju has what it takes to make yet another rapid step up.
In a group with hosts Ivory Coast and Nigeria in Group A, Baciro Cande’s team face a tough road to make their first-ever knockout stage appearance, even if Yaya Toure does place Guinea-Bissau among his four favourites to win the entire competition.
If they are to cause any shocks, Dju will be front and centre, a player who seems to guarantee goals wherever he goes.
Thom Harris
The Radar was edited by Duncan Alexander. Product engineering and design: Marc Mazzoni, Amy Cavenaile and Eamonn Dalton. Data viz: Mark Carey and Thom Harris
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)