‘Cameroon, Algeria, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria ready for competition’: Senegal’s captain Kalidou Koulibaly

Senegalese international Kalidou Koulibaly mentioned some countries he expected to be tough in the ongoing AFCON competition. They included Nigeria, Algeria, and Cameroon.

His country won the last AFCON competition and intend to defend their championship this year, but the captain who plays for Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal knows it will be an uphill task.

‘We think about it – but we know that every AFCON has its story,’ he said recently. ‘Now it’s a new story because you have a lot of teams who will be ready to win the title. We want to be part of those teams.

‘We know it will be really difficult for us because nobody wants a team to win it two times in a row. But we want to make it the story in our country.

‘It will be very difficult because Cameroon, Algeria, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria – everybody is ready for this competition. For a long time, we haven’t seen so many of the big teams so in form.

‘We’re going to see good competition and a good level – and the winner of this AFCON will have a lot of success in the future.

‘We have a lot of teams which we are 100 per cent sure of, but some teams we’re not. Because in AFCON, it’s not easy.

‘You have the temperature, the climate, the pitch, the time of when you play, we will have to take everything into consideration.

‘So I can’t tell you if we’re better than two years ago, but for sure we are more experienced. This is sure. The rest? We will see at the end of the competition. But I think Senegal have what it takes to see out AFCON.’

One of the things the player brought up while speaking was the importance of developing Africa’s football. He said specifically that Africa will be the future.

‘Us older players, we have to be proud to be African and to respect our national team and play for our national team.

‘For me, Africa will be the future. I hope everybody is conscious of that and they will do everything to make African football go up.

‘For me, it’s not just about Senegal, it’s about Africa. We have to work together to make the level of Africa go up.

‘We can see that in the World Cup with Morocco going into the semi-finals. Everyone was happy, but for me it was normal because we deserved it.

‘We can show in the future that African teams can be ready to win a World Cup soon.’

Last men’s World Cup, Morocco became the first African team to reach the semifinals. The continent’s inability to lift the cup following years of providing the world with many of its great players is a phenomenon.

However, Koulibaly believed there can be a change to the present trend, and that the AFCON competition will one day become as respectable as it should be in the world.

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