The world is looking forward to 2022 World Cup Qatar, wondering if this might be the tournament where an African team finally makes it to the final four.
African players have achieved great things worldwide, playing in the top leagues and raising plenty of eyebrows. From Didier Drogba to Yaya Toure, Mo Salah to Sadio Mane, players past and present from the continent have managed to reach the very top of the game.
One, George Weah, is considered by SI to be amongst the greatest players ever to grace a football field, so why is it that Africa still hasn’t had a team make a World Cup semi-final appearance? In at least one instance, if not two, it has been down to direct cheating by an opposition; more on that shortly.
2022 could be the year a team from our continent makes the final. Cameroon are the most likely to make the final stages according to the latest Coral football betting markets with Ghana, Algeria, Senegal and Egypt behind them. The latter two teams contested the recent African Cup of Nations final and perhaps will jump up the ratings once all teams have qualified and drawn groups. At the top of their game with Liverpool, players such as Salah and Mane could be instrumental.
If Africa finally gets a World Cup semi-finalist, or even better, a finalist, it might be a first, but it will still be a team following in the footsteps of three great sides of World Cup past. Here are our favorite African performances at previous World Cup tournaments.
Algeria – 1982
Before 1982, African football wasn’t taken seriously around the world. “We will dedicate the seventh goal to our wives”, stated West Germany ahead of their game against Algeria. That was the level of complacency and expectation when an African side took to the field, but the German side were shocked, beaten 2-1. Immediately, the effects of a new 24-team tournament produced what everyone had hoped; minnows were performing well. Sadly, West Germany and Austria conspired in the final group game to secure a 1-1 draw, eliminating the Desert Foxes through nothing short of cheating. The Disgrace of Gijon is believed by Planet Football to have changed the game forever.
Cameroon – 1990
Argentina, complete with Maradona, were overwhelming favorites for the 1990 tournament in Italy. They’d won the 1986 final and possessed not only the best player in the world but also the likes of Burruchaga, Ruggeri, Cannigia and Pumpido. They were expected to brush aside Cameroon in their first game, but instead, they were humbled 1-0. Roger Milla emerged as a star, as he had in Spain eight years earlier, and only two Gary Lineker penalties in the quarter-final, Africa’s first, prevented Cameroon from becoming the first African team into the final four. It established Cameroon as a major footballing nation, something reflected to this day in the most recent market odds.
Senegal – 2002
Opening game humblings are a specialty of African teams, as Senegal showed when they defeated France in 2002. France were the reigning World and European Champions, but Papa Bouba Diop’s goal set them on course for group stage elimination. With El Hadji Diouf, Aliou Cisse and Henri Camara, they edged into the quarter-finals, taking Turkey to golden goal extra time before being eliminated by İlhan Mansız’s strike.
Ghana – 2010
There was no shock to Ghana’s opening game win against Serbia in 2010; the Black Stars had reached 14 in the FIFA World Rankings and were expected to get out of a group containing Serbia, Australia and Germany. They did that and knocked out the United States in the round of 16, thanks to Asamoah Gyan’s extra-time goal. All that stood between them and a tie with the Netherlands in the semi-finals was Uruguay and one Luis Suarez. Late in the game, with the scores 1-1, Suarez handled a goalward-bound shot, deliberately, on the line. He was sent off, Gyan missed the penalty, and Uruguay won in the resulting shoot out, leaving Africa again cheated out of a semi-final place.