Most people claim every country is doing well on the continent and that’s why Black Stars tend to struggle against the minnows on the continent but what exactly are you also doing as a self-acclaimed giant on the continent to maintain that level? The Black Stars’ triumph on the continent, despite the fact that they had not won a trophy since 1982, began with the Black Satellites (Under-20) making history in Egypt against all odds by winning the U-20 World Cup in 2009.
Most of these young talents were promoted into the Black Stars, who led the country to its first final of the AFCON since Senegal 1992. The core of the squad was maintained who played in the semi finals of the 2012 and 2013 AFCON and another final in 2015.
Morocco made a significant investment in football by constructing the Mohammed VI Football Academy, and they are beginning to reap the benefits. Each of Morocco’s 12 regions has a smaller version of the Mohammed VI Football Academy that identifies talented footballers – both boys and girls – before the highest excelling players are brought to the national center in Rabat.
Some of these players from the national academy are recruited by the top clubs in the country, contributing to the strength of the domestic leagues and national teams. This may have led to the discovery of players like Nayef Aguerd (West Ham United) Youssef En-Nesyri (Seville) and Azzedine Ounahi (Angers) who made history in Qatar.
Elsewhere in Senegal, they created a channel to move from youth international level to the senior side through the establishment of academies and sports infrastructure. Academies have been established in almost all the cities to identify young talents in the country.
That was when they exited from the quarterfinals of the AFCON in 2017 and later a defeat in the 2019 final, which was an obvious indication of progress in their football, and finally won the ultimate in 2021. They won every CAF tournament after that huge investment in putting up the right structures with resource personnel.
Don’t expect success when you sit in your comfort zone to identify players of Ghanaian descent who don’t even understand the Ghanaian culture and consequently fail to deliver.