Africa Cup of Nations: All eyes on heavyweight Egypt and 'reigning star' Mohamed Salah
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Transcript
00:00 Now we're just one day away from the start of the biggest sporting event on the African
00:05 continent, the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
00:09 Victor Ossimane, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, some of the biggest names in football are
00:14 there in the hopes of clinching the title for their country.
00:19 But for more on the African Cup of Nations, I'm joined from Abidjan by Karim Baldé.
00:25 Karim, head of the African Sports Agency, Baldé Productions.
00:30 Great to have you on the show.
00:32 Let's start, of course, with who you're looking at as the favorites to reach the final and
00:39 to win that title.
00:40 Hello, Ketavan.
00:41 Well, among the favorites, I will quote, obviously, Morocco, because they went up to the semifinals
00:50 of the last FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
00:53 So obviously, they are the favorite.
00:55 They have not won this African Cup of Nations since 1976.
01:00 So it's been a while now.
01:02 And Walid Reghragi, Morocco's head coach, is looking forward to that because, well,
01:07 two years ago, there was a very disappointing campaign finishing in quarterfinals against
01:12 Egypt.
01:13 We can watch also Senegal, because they are the defending champions.
01:20 And the Lion de la Teranga would like to win another one.
01:25 This year's going to be tough because it's rare in African football history to see a
01:28 team winning twice or three times in a row the African Cup of Nations.
01:33 But who knows?
01:34 The problem is they are quite nice.
01:36 They have a good feel of play.
01:38 They are confident.
01:39 I look at them later, not so far away.
01:43 That was in October against Cameroon.
01:46 But the problem is that their main stars, they are now in Saudi Arabia.
01:50 I can talk about Sadio Mane.
01:53 I can talk about Khalid Khouribali, the captain as well.
01:56 So we'll see whether they get the same level as in 2022 throughout the competition.
02:05 Now you mentioned Sadio Mane.
02:07 There's also Victor Ossiman.
02:09 There's also Mohamed Salah, some of the biggest stars in world football who are here in this
02:16 competition.
02:17 Which players are you going to be looking at?
02:20 Who needs to perform?
02:22 Who is unexpected maybe?
02:28 We talked a lot about Victor Ossiman because he was CAF player of the year in 2023.
02:33 The problem for him is that Nigeria has a strong attacking front line.
02:38 But when we look at the defense, it's going to be tough because they don't have experience
02:43 and good goalkeeper and defenders.
02:46 Among the other players, we can talk about Hakim Ziyech as well, the Moroccan forward,
02:53 because in 2022, he wasn't in the Morocco squad because of a dispute with former head
02:59 coach Vahid Ali Odzic.
03:02 But this time he is here.
03:03 He was here in the last FIFA World Cup.
03:06 And this player is special.
03:08 He's one of the few who can bring the lights when it seems to be over.
03:13 So Hakim Ziyech, I will look forward to him to perform.
03:16 And Morocco, they will need him to go up to the end of this competition in my point of
03:22 view.
03:23 So I would quote Hakim Ziyech and maybe we have other players who can perform.
03:28 You know, during the AFCON, you have some players playing in second, third, even fourth
03:33 tiers of European leagues.
03:35 But once at the AFCON, they can perform because they have this will to perform for the country,
03:43 for the flag.
03:44 And each time we have surprises.
03:45 So I think that we can expect to see more of that throughout this month.
03:50 And looking ahead to these group stages, are there any big clashes that you're really looking
03:57 forward to?
03:58 I think there's on day two, I think, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, if I'm not mistaking, which
04:03 sounds pretty exciting for football lovers.
04:06 Any other clashes you're looking at?
04:09 Except this massive clash between Kodiwa and Nigeria.
04:14 We have a look at Morocco against Democratic Republic of Congo because DRC is back in the
04:21 game.
04:22 They weren't here in the last AFCON in 2022.
04:24 So it's going to be very interesting.
04:27 And the other group, the other very interesting group is a group C with Senegal and Cameroon.
04:34 Their clash will be very exciting.
04:36 They met each other in a friendly in October that was in Lens, north of France.
04:41 And we don't know what to expect from Cameroon, to be honest, because while they have many,
04:47 many counter-votes before the competition, just talking about the goalkeeper, Andre Onana.
04:52 But once they are in the competition, they know how to perform.
04:56 And Senegal, they are the reigning champions.
04:57 So Senegal versus Cameroon, Morocco versus DRC and Ivory Coast against Nigeria, the three
05:03 main clashes in the group stage.
05:06 And very quickly, Karim, I want to put you on the spot.
05:09 Who do you see as the winners of the AFCON 2024?
05:13 You have only one answer to give.
05:17 This is a very tricky question.
05:20 But if I have to pick up one team, I will say Egypt, because they were the finalists
05:25 of the last edition of the AFCON and the reigning star Mohamed Salah is still there with Liverpool
05:32 and as well with the Egyptian national team.
05:36 And if we compare with what happened in Cameroon two years ago, we can say that Egypt is stronger
05:41 now because they have better players and they decided to play a little bit more football
05:46 because they relied a lot on their defense and on their goalkeepers to go up to the final
05:52 in 2022.
05:53 But I think that this time is going to be better for them.
05:56 So I can't get a lot of Egypt.
05:59 Thank you so much, Karim Baldé, for all this information and your insights on this competition.
06:06 You will be there this whole time from January 13th to February 11th.
06:11 France 24 will be bringing you all the latest from the Africa Cup of Nations with our reporters
06:16 on the ground and from here in Paris.
06:19 And to kick things off, we'll have a special show tomorrow at 8.10pm Paris time with Selena
06:25 Sykes and Jean-Emile Jamy.