Times are changing: 30% of AFCON players not born in Africa
Reading Time: 3min | Wed. 24.12.25. | 15:15
Finally, FIFA did something good for African football when they changed the rules 20 years ago
FIFA suffered a lot of critics from the African countries in recent weeks, more specifically from the countries which are participating at AFCON.
The major reason for that is the fact that just before the tournament started, the football governing body sided with the clubs and allow them to keep African players seven days more than they should. Many African coaches protested because their training plans and football camps have been disturbed and they had less time to prepare tactically. But now there is also one interesting fact which actually goes in favor to African clubs and which was provided to them by FIFA.
.jpg)
20 years ago, FIFA changed rules on international eligibility and allowed players who had represented one country at junior level to switch allegiance if they had dual nationality. And now, the African counties have seen full benefits of that. Later, FIFA again changed the rules and allowed players with senior caps in non-competitive internationals to change, like Wilfried Zaha, who won two caps for England but is competing for Ivory Coast at the Afcon in Morocco.
So, what is the benefit for the African teams right now? Well, in some teams the majority of their current squads are consisted of players not born in Africa, but rather European countries. At this edition of AFCON, only Botswana, Egypt and South Africa have teams consisted of all home-grown players. So, while before we had plenty of African players who decided to play for their country of birth (France, Belgium, Spain, England) rather their country of origin, now we have a common situation where out-of-Africa born players are now deciding on choosing their country of origin.
According to some reports, almost 30% of the players competing at this year’s Afcon were born outside the continent. For example, Comoros, who opened this year’s competition with a 2-0 loss to hosts Morocco have only one player born in Comoros, while other 25 were born outside of Africa, while the Atlans Lions have majority of players who were not born in Morocco, as well as some other counties in the tournament, like Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and Equatorial Guinea. In total, of the 664 players across the 24 teams at the tournament, 191 were born in Europe, representing 28.8%.
Equatorial Guinea’s 28-man squad, for example, have 19 players all born in the former colonial power Spain. So, FIFA rule change, with a combination of heavy scouting in Europe by African teams have given benefits to the continent in recent years. Surely, some players are just pure opportunists who start their international careers in France or Spain but when they realize they won’t make it in senior level suddenly ‘remember’ they have roots in Africa, but their countries won’t mind, as long as they bring quality.
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS - GROUP STAGE
Wednesday
15.30: (1.80) Burkina Faso (3.50) Equatorial Guinea (4.70)
18.00: (1.45) Algeria (4.20) Sudan (8.00)
20.30: (1.40) Ivory Coast (4.50) Mozambique (8.50)
23.00: (2.15) Cameroon (3.25) Gabon (3.60)
***odds are subject to change***
