Why Africa is standing still at the World Cup

It’s time for that quadrennial question: can an African side finally leap the cobweb-draped quarterfinal hurdle at this World Cup? This time around, most African football experts would answer the question with a rueful shrug. The football power of Africa is at a disconcertingly low ebb. And Senegal, the continent’s most credible contenders to reach the quarter finals, have been dealt a horrible blow by the withdrawal of Sadio Mané due to injury. 

The other four sides – Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco and Tunisia – have one or two or three truly elite players each but their supporting casts are not strong or coherent enough to prevail against the far more balanced sides they are likely to meet in the round of 16. That’s even assuming they get past the group stage. 

These are hard and hurtful facts because we have waited long enough to break this barrier. Thirty-two years have passed since Cameroon came within minutes of reaching the semifinals, only to be edged out by England in Naples. And 12 years have passed since Ghana came within a crossbar (and a toothy Uruguayan’s hand) of doing the same in Rustenburg in 2010. 

And it hurts even more when you consider the background of many of the most scintillating young prospects at this tournament: England’s Bukayo Saka; Portugal’s Rafael Leao; Germany’s Jamal Musiala and Youssoufa Moukoko; The Netherlands’s Cody Gakpo; Canada’s Alphonso Davies; Spain’s Ansu Fati and the French trio of Eduardo Camavinga, William Saliba and Aurelien Tchouameni.