The President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrice Motsepe, has predicted that an African country will win the FIFA World Cup very soon in the aftermath of Morocco’s performances at the recently concluded Qatar 2022 tournament.
Motsepe who lauded the achievements of the Atlas Lions as the first team from the continent to reach the semi final of any world cup, called on other African countries to learn from the North African kingdom.
Motsepe who addressed a press conference on Wednesday in Johannesburg, South Africa, said “that Morocco’s historic run at the Qatar World Cup was a logical result of the colossal investments the country has injected in advancing its football.”
“Morocco has opened the door and made us proud. We want the rest of the continent to get inspiration from Moroccan football. Morocco’s success in Qatar was not by coincidence.
“Many African countries should learn from Morocco and be inspired by their investments,” the CAF president said.
The African football chief said with “Morocco having lifted the curse of the quarter-finals that had long hovered over African teams at the World Cup,” he is now confident that an “African team can do as well as Morocco in 2026 or even win the global tournament.”
“African countries could achieve the same success when governments and their football associations work hand-in-hand to develop the game,” Motsepe added.
Roma manager, Jose Mourinho, has heaped praises on Nigerian forward, Victor Osimhen, after the striker scored a wonder goal which can potentially compete for the goal of the season in the Italian Serie A.
The former Chelsea boss said Osimhen, who is a target of one of his former clubs, Manchester United, can compare favourably with former Ivorian striker, Didier Drogba who terrorised defences in the English Premier League.
However, Mourinho said the only hindrance to the Napoli striker reaching legendary status is if he desists from “diving” to gain favours from referees.
“He is of the same level as Drogba, but Didier didn’t dive,” Mourinho told reporters after the game when asked to access the Super Eagles forward’s performance.
“If Victor changes, then OK. I’d buy him if I was at a club with a lot of money.”
“However, if he does go to England one day, he needs to change, because in Italy they put up with this sort of behaviour, whereas in the Premier League, they’d come down hard on him.”
“I told him that he scored a wonderful goal and needs to stop diving so much. His goal was fantastic, he did the same thing when we met earlier this season, so he’s a fantastic player. But he mustn’t dive,” the Portuguese coach said.
The red hot Osimhen, has scored 14 goals in 16 league matches, propelling Napoli to a healthy 13 point lead at the top of thr Serie A.
It was a night of shocks and history on Saturday at the ongoing African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Algeria when one of the tournament’s favourites, Ghana, was knocked out by outsiders, Niger Republic in a 2-0 defeat which saw the Nigeriens qualify for the semi-finals.
As if the shock was not enough, first-time qualifiers, Madagascar, thumped Mozambique 3-1 to also qualify for the semi-final in some style.
While Madagascar was dealing with Mozambique in Constantine, Niger shocked two-time runners-up, Ghana, in Oran to complete the last-four line-up alongside host, Algeria and Senegal.
Niger’s reward is a date with Algeria while Madagascar will square up against Senegal, both on Tuesday.
Though Algeria and Senegal are outright favourites to win the tournament meant for African footballers playing in their country of birth, pundits believe underating the so called minnows could spell doom as Ghana, Cameroon, DR Congo and other top playing nations found out the hard way.
Madagascar had earlier shocked Ghana and hammered Sudan to win Group C, while Niger had pulled up the shock of the group stages by sending Cameroon packing with a 1-0 victory in their last group D match.