Football In Africa

Football In Africa

Football in Africa is followed passionately from Morocco down to South Africa. As you travel through Africa you will know when an important football match is being played because the country you are visiting will literally come to a standstill.

Everywhere you go in Africa you'll see young boys kicking around a football. Sometimes the ball will be made of plastic bags with string wrapped around it, sometimes it will be made of crumpled up paper. As long as it can be kicked, there will be a game.

Top African Footballers:

Roger Miller
Didier Drogba
Samuel Eto'o
Michael Essien

Asamoah Gyan

Toure Brothers

Top African Teams and Their Nicknames
The top 5 African teams are: Nigeria (The Super Eagles), Cameroon (The Indomitable Lions),Senegal (The Lions of Teranga), Ivory Coast (The Elephants) and Morocco (Lions of Atlas). Nigeria and Cameroon have a long standing football rivalry similar to that of Brazil and Argentina.

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Noticeable events held in Africa:

Africa Cup of Nations 2015 was held in Equatorial Guinea. The 2013 tournament was held in South Africa. The host countries automatically qualified, in this case it should have been Morocco, but they bowed out due to the Ebola scare. The Africa Cup of Nations is normally held every two years.

The African Champions League is an annual competition for African football clubs (as opposed to national teams) and it's run by CAF (Confederation of African Football). The competition is not quite as popular as some of the European leagues which are watched closely in Africa, but nationalism takes over during the finals which are held at the end of October and mid November. Click here for the 2010 scheduled games and final results. The 2010 champion was TP Mazembe of the DRC who beat Tunisia's Esperance.

The Confederation Cup is a competition for the National Cup winner in each country. The finals take place in November. Current standings and match fixtures can be found on the CAF web site.

World Cup 2010 was held in South Africa. It was a huge success and Africans felt that the world was finally respecting their ability to hold an event of this magnitude. Mandela was brought to tears on the news that South Africa won the right to host the event. Find out all about the 2010 World Cup.

Want to Know More About African Football?

Africa's Top Football Players Read Africa United by Steve Bloomfield.

The BBC probably has the most comprehensive coverage of African Football. It follows African players abroad as well as leagues and news from within the continent.

The CAF (Confederation of African Football) has an official web site which provides information on the various competitions out there. It also has some good information on local leagues and youth teams.

Sports Scheduler a South African web site has a very good collection of links to national team web sites as well as local clubs from Algeria to Morocco.