THE GAME
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usual podcast app.The brass band in the corner of the grandstand
kept playing. Otherwise the silence was sudden
and eerie. Some 55,000 Nigerians, crammed into
the national stadium in Surulere, Lagos, had been
stunned at their Super Eagles falling 1-0 behind
in their own Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) final.
An impertinent teenager from Cameroon had
done the damage, with a goal that seemed
implausible both in its construction — a dainty
pirouette and a shot from an acute angle — and
in its affront to the hosts’ sense of entitlement.
Samuel Eto’o’s opening strike in the final of the
first Afcon of this century, won by Cameroon on
penalties, announced to the wider world a talent
that would, over the next decade, define club
football’s most prestigious finals again and again,
either in the colours of Barcelona or Inter Milan.
As a player Eto’o made a habit of defying
intimidating noise. It will be a useful skill in his
new job, as president of the Cameroon Football
Federation, the host organisation for the 33rd
Afcon, which runs from Sunday to February 6.
No edition of African football’s showpiece has
generated so much hostility from the sport’s
main powerbase, European clubs, where more
than 250 of the participants at this, the first
24-nation Afcon to be staged mid-season, are
employed. Today’s deadline for the release of
called-up players — extended by a week by
Fifa and the Confederation of African Football,
under pressure from clubs — arrives clouded
with individual squabbles over availability,
overshadowing a tournament already beset with
challenges. It coincides with a global public
health emergency, has already been postponed
twice, including in the summer because of the
Covid-19 pandemic, and is taking place in a
country where there is regional conflict. Armed
security will be very visible in Cameroon’s cities.
Easy then, from Europe, to cast Africa’s great
sporting biennial as far more of a privation than
an opportunity — for, say, Mohamed Salah to
deliver for his vast constituency in Egypt a
career-defining triumph and, as he is acutely
aware, an extra endorsement, should Egypt
better their silver medal from the 2017 Afcon,
to his candidacy for the next Ballon d’Or. Or for
Édouard Mendy and Sadio Mané to guide
Senegal, runners-up in 2019, to a longed-for first
Afcon success.
The concern at key absences for two, three or
four domestic fixtures during Afcon extends well
beyond English football, and reflects the
importance of African players to title
races across the game’s wealthiest
leagues. In Spain, the club making
the best chase of Real Madrid in
La Liga are Seville, thanks
largely to the best defensive
record in the division and
the work of their goalkeeper
Yassine Bounou. He is one
of the club’s three Morocco
internationals, among them
the club’s senior centre forward,
Youssef En-Nesyri, about to
say farewell, perhaps until
mid-February.
Italy’s tight title race is affected too.
Milan will be without the influential midfielders
Franck Kessie, of Ivory Coast, and Ismaël
Bennacer, of Algeria, and it is not hard to
diagnose why the form of Napoli, pacesetters for
the first third of season, dropped off before
Christmas. Injuries to the central defender
Kalidou Koulibaly and to Victor Osimhen, thestriker, took two vertebrae out of the side’s spine;
another will be temporarily removed with the
midfielder André-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s duty
for Cameroon. Nigeria’s Osimhen’s fractured
cheekbone has not healed enough for him to be
at Afcon but Senegal hope Koulibaly’s recovery
from muscle problems will allow him to captain
his country at some stage.
This Afcon features the leading scorer so
far in the 2021-22 Champions League,
Sébastien Haller, of Ajax, a former
France Under-21 international
who last year committed to
Ivory Coast, the country of his
maternal heritage. Its cast
includes the most expensive
recruit from Paris Saint-
Germain’s season of stellar
signings, the Morocco right
back Achraf Hakimi, and the
leading goalscorer of the
Premier League leaders,
Manchester City, Riyad Mahrez,
whose Algeria side go to Cameroon as
defending champions.
The enlarged format — the finals swelled to
24 nations after 2017 — will also be a platform
for the lesser known, although to pick out, even
to hope for, a new Eto’o, a precocious epochal
star-in-the-making, would be presumptuous. As
certain African federations have pointed out, the
European club cartel has reduced the possible
shortlist. Morocco had been ready to unleash the
exciting Barcelona winger Ez Abde, 20, until last
week, when they were informed that the player,capped by Morocco at under-20 level, has
decided to pursue his international career with
Spain, where he moved with his family when he
was seven. Within the Moroccan federation,
whose head coach, Vahid Halilhodzic, described
preparation for this Afcon as a “series of battles
with lobbyists”, they suspect Barcelona lobbied
the player to prefer Spain over Morocco partly so
as not to release him for Afcon.
Nor will Ghana be travelling with Felix Afena-
Gyan, 18, who turned down his call-up with the
argument that his development would be better
served by staying with his club, Roma. Since his
Serie A debut in November, Afena-Gyan has
made enough impressive cameo appearances for
his club coach, José Mourinho, to want to keep
him close.
A brilliant month at Afcon can act as a rebuke
to a distant employer. When Eto’o lit up the
tournament in early 2000, Real were given the
first of several reminders, having gone to the
effort of scouting him as a 15-year-old, that they
neglected to make the best use of him. When
Bennacer, then 21, was named player of the
tournament in 2019, it was noted that Arsenal
had signed him at 17 and then let him leave the
club before he turned 20.
For this Afcon, Arsenal’s perspective will be
nuanced. The absence of their highest earner,
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, can feel like no
absence at all, given he was dropped last month
for disciplinary reasons. But should Aubameyang
inspire Gabon while Arsenal stumble through a
fortnight of testing fixtures, he may be missed
with a little more ardour.Brilliant month for Afcon can act
as a rebuke to a distant employer
Eto’o, a winner with Cameroon, gets ready to
host the showpiece under various pressuresKHALED ELFIQI/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCKMahrez, who will be missed by City, turns in celebration of his winner for Algeria in the 2019 semi-finalIAN
HAWKEY
European Football
16 1GG Monday January 3 2022 | the times
Watford clash with
Senegal over SarrWatford are embroiled in a
second Africa Cup of Nations
row, this time with Senegal over the
availability of Ismaila Sarr.
Senegal have accused the Premier
League club of refusing to release the
injured winger for the tournament.
It comes after Nigeria suggested
that Watford were “baring fangs”
after the club objected to Emmanuel
Dennis, their top goalscorer, being
named in the squad for Afcon. It has
since been confirmed that Dennis will
not be taking part.
Sarr has been out since November
20 with a knee injury and Watford do
not expect him to be fit again until
next month, but he was named in
Senegal’s squad. The Senegal Football
Federation released a statement
saying that Watford had “blocked”
Sarr from joining up with the national
team, adding that the 23-year-old had
“expressed his desire” to do so.
A statement from Watford said that
the club had outlined Sarr’s medical
status and recovery schedule to his
national team and “invited the
Senegal Football Federation to
instruct their own independent
surgeon to confirm the diagnosis and
rehabilitation period”.Covid setback for
Messi after concertLionel Messi is among four Paris
Saint-Germain players who have
tested positive for Covid-19 after
returning from the winter break.
Juan Bernat, Sergio Rico and
Nathan Bitumazala, as well as one
member of staff, are also isolating
after contracting the virus.
Messi, 34, used the winter break to
return to his native Argentina, where
a video emerged online of him
attending a concert with his wife.
Speaking in a press conference
yesterday Mauricio Pochettino, the
PSG head coach, indicated that
Messi was still in Argentina and
would not travel until he had
tested negative.
PSG most recently played on
December 22 and return to action
against fourth-tier Vannes in a Coupe
de France tie tonight. Neymar will
also be absent from that match
as he is continuing his recovery in
Brazil from an ankle injury.Liga leaders Real
humbled by GetafeReal Madrid suffered only a
second La Liga defeat of the
season yesterday as Carlo Ancelotti’s
table-toppers were beaten 1-0 away to
Getafe. The 16th-placed home side
secured the shock result via a ninth-
minute finish from Enes Unal, who
slotted past Thibaut Courtois having
seized the ball from Eder Militao just
inside the Real box.
Real’s lead at the top remains at
eight points ahead of second-placed
Sevilla, who have played two games
fewer and are away to Cadiz today.