Off to Egypt

When the relentless chaos of the club season comes to an end, international football often takes centre stage. Every other year, one of the two most popular tournaments (the World Cup and the European Championships) grabs the headlines. The other two summers, as far as a European football fan is concerned, tend to be slow going, transfer speculation and fixture announcements filling the void until the Premier League begins again mid-August. 

The only reason an EPL fan is likely to be aware of the Africa Cup of Nations would be if their star player went missing for a month just after Christmas, leaving them nervous of a downturn in form (think Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure, or Jay-Jay Okocha…) 

Two of the more famous Premiership absentees during past Afcon tournaments - Chelsea’s Drogba and Man City’s Yaya Toure playing for the Ivory Coast (photo: CNN)

The tournament is usually held in January, interrupting the seasons of some of the world’s biggest stars. Let’s not forget that the top 3 goal scorers in the Premier League last year (Aubameyang, Mane and Salah) all hail from Africa. How would the table have looked if Klopp’s side had been missing their 2 key men over the Christmas period? 

This year was the first time the change was made, with the tournament taking place in the closed season, alongside South America’s similar ‘Copa America’ showpiece. This summer’s Africa Cup of Nations was originally due to take place in Cameroon, but the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided they were underprepared to host it, eventually belatedly awarding it to Egypt. 

Egypt’s Mohammed Salah and Senegal’s Sadio Mane shared last year’s EPL Golden Boot with Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Still fuelled by the desire to keep travelling to different cultures through football, Afcon 2019 seemed a great chance to explore Africa’s passion for the game, and to see how big tournament football looks and feels in one of its biggest cities, Cairo. It is one of the oldest cities on the planet; home to over 20 million people, ancient wonders and the longest river in the world - where does football fit in?

The River Nile (the longest in the world) as the sun sets