YAOUNDE - Gabon captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival in Cameroon on Thursday, threatening his participation at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Aubemayang and teammate Mario Lemina returned positive results when tested on arrival at Yaounde’s airport, along with assistant coach Anicet Yala, the Gabon Football Federation said in a statement.
The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations begins Sunday, Jan. 9, with 24 nations vying for the continental championship. Before a ball is even kicked, we can tell you one area in which AFCON is going to better than last summer's Gold Cup, Copa América and European Championship tournaments: the jerseys.
With 17 different brands on show, there are some real classics from heavy hitters like PUMA and Nike but also some gems from Ireland's Masita, France's Airness and Italy's Macron.
LIMBE, Cameroon - Droves of armored vehicles are patrolling the streets of Limbe in Cameroon's conflict-torn South West Region ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) soccer finals starting on Jan. 9 that separatist militants have vowed to disrupt.
Cameroon is hosting the tournament in six cities, but security is potentially most at threat in Limbe, a city on the tropical Atlantic coast whose surrounding region has been rocked by armed attacks since war broke out in 2017.
Sierra Leone are hoping to prove competitive and lay the foundation for future qualification as they compete at this month’s Africa Cup of Nations finals for the first time in a quarter century, coach John Keister said.
Having last qualified for the 1996 edition in South Africa in only their second appearance at the finals, the west African country returns hoping to become a more regular participant, according to their Manchester-born coach.
Cataclysmic defending sharply followed by a brilliant bicycle kick is how a wild game ended in Morocco’s top flight on Tuesday. This Montassir Lahtimi bicycle kick in the 93rd minute handed Wydad AC, the league leader, only its second loss of the season.
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RABAT — Hakim Ziyech was the notable absentee as Morocco coach Vahid Halilhodzic on Thursday named his squad for next month's Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon.
The Chelsea winger had a fallout with the coach earlier this year and was overlooked for the six World Cup qualifiers played between September and November, making his omission no shock although the Dutch-born Ziyech is seen as Morocco's key player.
There's a giant question mark looming over the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations, scheduled to take place between Jan. 9 and Feb. 6, with CAF president Patrice Motsepe arriving in the host nation of Cameroon on Monday for critical talks with the government to assess its readiness to host the tournament.
CAPE TOWN — South Africa will make a formal complaint to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and global soccer governing body FIFA over the officiating in its 1-0 away defeat by Ghana in the African World Cup qualifiers on Sunday.
The result meant Ghana leapfrogged their opponents to take top spot in Group G and advance to the final qualifying stage in March, where they will hope to be one of five teams from the continent to book their place at Qatar 2022.
Mohamed Salah, the greatest African goal scorer in the history of the Premier League, is now a part of the curriculum for primary and secondary school children in Egypt.
The 2009 Confederations Cup was simultaneously the closest the USMNT has come to a major international trophy and a near abject failure. Bob Bradley’s Americans were extremely lucky to escape the group stage but then came within a Lucio header of global glory. A dozen years later, where are those USMNT players? Many of them remain fixtures on our TVs — not all as players, but as pundits. Others now fill the ranks of coaching and technical staffs at clubs around the world.