Since 1930 when the first FIFA world cup was held in Uruguay, Africa has never lifted the prestigious trophy, which the 2026 edition of the tournament that will be jointly hosted this summer by U.S.A., Canada and Mexico, presents the continent with another glorious opportunity to have a shot at the crown.
With an expanded mundial of 48 teams from its initial 32 teams, Africa now has nine automatic slots to represent the continent with DR Congo luckily picking a tenth slot via the playoffs to bring the continent’s number of representatives to an unprecedented ten teams. This no doubt brightens Africa’s chances considering that at the last world cup hosted by Qatar in 2022, where Africa had five representatives, Morocco got to the semi finals.
The question begging therefore for an immediate answer would be: Can Africa Win the 2026 FIFA World Cup? Can they go a step farther this time? But like they say: if wishes were horses beggars will ride. It is not impossible because this is football where anything and everything is possible. But realistically, “it will be easier for a camel’s head to pass through the eye of a needle than for an African team to win the world cup this year”. Though, looking at the number of talent that Africa possesses and with the exploits of teams like Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana at the world cup, the late legendary Brazilian footballer, Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele) predicted that an African team was going to win the world cup before the end of the last century, which never happened.
But was Pele totally wrong to have made such a prediction? What exactly did he see that perhaps informed his decision which African teams are not seeing? Truth be told, King Pele was right judging by the talent pool which Africa possesses but winning the world cup goes beyond having the talents alone. Africa lacks the descipline, technical, tactical and administrative know-how to deliver this.
It is therefore not a surprise that Morocco which is in the North with perhaps a lesser talent pool when compared to the West African countries but is doing everything right now, is the country that has gone the farthest in the tournament from the continent.
The Moroccans did a similar thing to what the French did by assembling their best legs who were not necessarily born in Morocco but mostly in France, backed with a good and focused football administration that’s turning whatever Morocco touches now to gold.
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The contrasting thing is that Africa has exported so many talents to Europe and it still does, with the likes of Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’O, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, George Weah, Mohamed Salah, Victor Osimhen, Achraf Hakimi amongst many others whom have lighted and keep lighting European leagues with football made in Africa. France won the world cup in 1998 with a squad largely described as a United team of Africans because it was dominated by Africans. Today, we have the likes of Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze playing for England, Michael Olise playing for France, David Alaba for Switzerland to mention a few.
Therefore, until African countries engage the very best of coaches to help them with the needed technical and tactical deficiencies and not third grade rejected coaches in Europe, the circle may just continue. Again administrative malady and ineptitude is equally a big challenge. Hardly would any world cup pass without having controversies and drama from African countries quarreling over bonuses and match allowances which distracts the team from focusing on the task at hand.
Nigeria Super Eagles players boycotted training during Brazil 2014 world cup shortly before their round of 16 encounter against France which they lost 2-0. A similar scenario even played up at the last Africa cup of nations (AFCON) tournament in Morocco, where the players threatened not to travel to honour their knockout fixture against Algeria. Cameroon and Ghana teams have also had their own fair share of the ugly incidents at the international stage. However, this would never happen with European teams which are only focused on the tournament and how to possibly win it.
The South American countries have mostly won the world cup each time it’s hosted outside Europe, like in the case of Uruguay winning it when they hosted it in 1930 and 1950 when Brazil hosted it. Brazil won ’58 in Sweden, ’62 in Chile, ’70 in Mexico, ’94 in U.S.A.and 2002 in Japan/Korea, while Argentina won ’78 in Argentina, ’86 in Mexico and 2022 in Qatar. Therefore, history may repeat itself again to have a South American country winning the world cup since it’s taking place outside Europe.
But for Africa, having ten teams in the world cup is a major achievement and victory, if they can build on it, maybe just maybe their dream to win the world cup may just be closer than they ever imagined or dreamt of.
