What’s your most embarrassing story? Khadim N’Diaye, goalkeeper for the Senegal national team, has a pretty good one. It involves his right leg, his left leg and a degree of shamelessness that’s enough to make the rest of humanity feel humiliated.
N'Diaye performed an atrocious bit of playacting to shave a few seconds off the clock at the end of Senegal’s match versus Algeria at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
At every major international tournament, there’s always a player that does something so sensational that he finds himself the subject of a massive transfer. This goal from Piqueti of Guinea-Bissau may be the example of that at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
This is Guinea-Bissau’s first-ever appearance at the African finals, so next to nothing was expected of the side from West Africa. However, they opened the tournament with a shocking 1-1 draw against the hosts, Gabon. In their next match against heavily favored Cameroon, they took an unexpected 1-0 lead through Piqueti.
We would like to share with you two moments from the Africa Cup of Nations that made us lean forward in our seat and open our eyes really wide. These happened on different days and in different matches, but they are both glorious.
The first is Burkina Faso's goalkeeper doing his best sweeper-keeper.
Burkina Faso's keeper will soon find himself in a Chinese club's back four on £300k-a-week after this tackle pic.twitter.com/TDgvJnFc3I
Borussia Dortmund and Gabon National Team striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was dressed a little different from his contemporaries at the African Player of the Year gala. Aubameyang, who won the award last year, showed up in street clothes, apparently because his luggage got lost.
After the smattering of originality at Euro 2016 thanks to a series of cookie cutter kits from Nike, the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations looks to be a romantic affair for jersey lovers. These are the best selections of what national sides like Senegal, Cameroon and the Ivory Coast will be wearing in Gabon.
Cameroon is very mad at Liverpool because Joel Matip doesn't want to play in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Matip is a senior-capped Cameroon international, has had disagreements with the country's sport governing body before, when he was playing for Schalke, and has evidently decided he just doesn't want to play for them anymore.
Naturally, the Cameroon FA decided that of course Joel Matip wants to play for Cameroon, who wouldn't, and it's all Liverpool's fault he's not going to the African Cup of Nations.
The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations begins on January 14 in Gabon. This will be the 31st edition of the 16-team tournament, with the Ivory Coast serving as the defending champions from the 2015 event.
The Ivory Coast are the early favorites to repeat, but the likes of Senegal, Algeria, Ghana and Egypt are also strong bets with talented squads. What makes the tournament so electrifying is its unpredictability — the 30 previous tournaments have seen 14 different nations crowned champions.