African Five-a-side

The Nigerian Super Eagles come to Côte d'Ivoire with one of the most stacked squads in the tournament, especially in attack. Yet, results in recent times have been disappointing.

We speak to one of the most well-respected journalists in Africa, Oluwashina Okeleji, about Nigeria and their prospects in the upcoming Afcon.

Egypt were Afcon finalists in 2017 and 2021. They missed out on the last Afcon title and the 2022 World Cup after losing to Senegal in penalty shoot-outs.

So what does this year's Egypt look like? Are they a continuation of those sides which were much more pragmatic, or - under the tutelage of their new coach, Rui Vitoria - are they more a callback to the golden age of Egyptian football?

To dissect all of these questions, we have Mohamed Quotb on as a special guest.

You can follow Mohamed here: https://twitter.com/MoQoutb

You can follow the African Five-a-side podcast here: https://twitter.com/AfricanFiveSide

As we close in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, the African Five-a-side podcast has decided to put aside matchdays for now and, instead, focus on previewing every.single.team that will compete in the tournament.

First up? Algeria. The 2019 champions have had a tough two years, so we invited Hamza Rahmani - a commentator for Bein Sports - to come on and break down how confident Algeria are at the moment and how he thinks they'll do in Cote D'Ivoire

You can follow Hamza here: https://twitter.com/hmzrhmn

And you can follow the African Five-a-side podcast here: https://twitter.com/AfricanFiveSide

"Kenneth Kaunda was a rarity: an African President who not only backed football, but [also] actually liked it" - David Goldblatt. In the final episode of Matchday 1 of the African Five-a-side podcast, we profile Zambia's first president, Kenneth Kaunda. Kaunda so loved football and supported the national teal that they were nicknamed the "KK11" in honour of him. We also explore how Kaunda got parastatal conglomerates in Zambia's Copperbelt to sponsor domestic clubs and spur local football development.

*Special thanks to the research of Dr. Hikabwa Chipande and his extensive research on this subject which served as the basis for this episode.

The 2023 CAF Awards were largely uneventful, and so this week we're using the African Football Round-up for some tier talk. We take a brief look at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations which will kick-off in about a months' time and categorise the 24 teams into four categories: favourites, contenders, dark horses, and "happy to be here".

1958 Ahmed Sekou Touré campaigned so that Guineans would vote "No" in a referendum on whether to adopt the new French constitution or reject it and opt for independence. As the first leader of independent Guinea, Touré focused on wide-ranging educational reform which included encourage sport for the masses at a grassroots level. Yet, after witnessing the success of Kwame Nkrumah's Black Stars, Touré decides that it's time to use football as a diplomatic tool. Cherif Souleymane, Petit Sory, Papa Camara, Bengally Sylla, Maxime Camara and N'Jo Lea are some of the names that end up comprising the great Guinean generation of 1972-1978, which was spurred by Touré's political philosophy. In episode 4 of the African Five-a-side podcast, we'll relive those golden years and trace over the Africa Cup of Champions Clubs triumphs and how they were instrumentalised by Touré and the PDG.

With the 2023 CAF Awards just a week away, Maher Mezahi explains that he was selected as part of a media panel to vote on the awards and reveals how he voted.

In this episode we'll revisit John Obi Mikel's appearance on Rio Ferdinand's podcast where he talks about family manipulation. From there we trace some of the challenges star African footballers face on a day-to-day basis and why that can make them vulnerable, but also capable of much more than your average footballer.

Side note: Apologies for not releasing a podcast last Monday, I was in Tunis on a shoot for the Africa Cup of Nations. As a result, we're going to skip an African Five-a-side podcast this Friday and pick it back up next week.

Episode 3 of Matchday 1 of the African-five-a side podcast continues to explore the stories of five African heads of state and their influence on football. This week, we're introducing our striker: the practical and manipulative Mobutu Sese Seko

After consolidating power in Congo-Kinshasa during the Congo Crisis, Mobutu utilised a spike in copper to invest in the national football team, following a humiliating 3-0 loss to the Ghanaian Black Stars in May 1966. Mobutu's first point of order was to recall the "Belgicains", Congolese footballers that were poached by European clubs during the Congo Crisis. He also instituted his doctrine of authenticite to rebrand the national football team and rename them the "Leopards", after the leopard-printed hat that he always wore. Yet, after two Afcon titles, Zaire's participation at the 1974 FIFA World Cup so embarrassed Mobutu that he decided to divest from football. The Central African nation never again rose to the heights that it once did during that 7 year period between 1967-1974.

In retrospect, very few heads of state enjoyed as much success in such little time as Mobutu did with the Leopards. Very few heads of state also named their national football teams after their favourite piece of clothing. Nonetheless, Mobutu's significant success to the development of Congolese football make him a natural choice for our African heads of state five-a-side team.

In this episode of the African Football Roundup we recap the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Africa and outline some of the good we saw as well as some of the bad.

Egypt, Senegal and South Africa displayed reasons for optimism. Egypt under Rui Vitoria are one of Africa's most coherent sides, Senegal have a new midfield pairing with Pape Matar Sarr and Lamine Camara - that's not fair. And with the Sundowns boys, are Bafana back?

The bad comes from West Africa. Nigeria come away from the qualifiers with just 2 points in 2 matches, while Ghana look a bit stale under new coach Chris Hughton. Despite their recent win versus Madagascar, we think they might struggle to make the 2026 World Cup in the Americas.