World Cup 2026: Africa is king among players

Senegal's forward Sadio Mane (C) celebrates with Senegal teammates.[AFP]

The 2026 World Cup is underway in Mexico, Canada and the USA. There was controversy before the games began due to challenges in visa acquisition. However, when the whistle for the opening match was blown, football cleared the sideshows.

13 African nations have qualified for the World Cup since Egypt played at the 1934 World Cup in Italy. It took another 36 years for another African country, Morocco, to feature in the 1970s in Mexico. Africa had only one slot for 1970, 1974, the Democratic Republic of Congo featured, and 1978, Tunisia represented the continent. In 1972, CAF got two slots, which increased over the years until this year’s edition.

The elite African teams in North America are: Algeria, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. Cape Verde is making their debut.

There are eight players of Cameroon descent at the World Cup. French players Kylian Mbappe, Aurelian Tchuameni and William Saliba.

Swiss internationals Breel Embolo and Yvom Mvogo. Others are Belgium’s Amadou Onana and Sweden’s Antony Elanga. Ivory Coast also has Evan Ndicka, who has Cameroonian roots.

There are also 13 players of Nigerian descent. Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise is of Nigerian and Algerian descent. Meanwhile, he was born in England but chose to play for France. He had no roots in France; he just chose it because France presented a good chance for winning an international trophy.

The other players of Nigerian descent are Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze for England, Jamal Musiala and Felix Nmecha for Germany, Manuel Akanji and Noah Okafor for Switzerland, David Alaba for Austria, Folarin Balogun for the USA and Ime Okon for South Africa. Football is special in that, despite Xenophobia, a player of Nigerian descent can represent Bafana Bafana.

Nestory Irankunda became the youngest player to score for Australia when he scored their first goal in the 2-0 win against Turkey. The 20-year-old Irankunda was born in 2006 in a refugee camp in Tanzania to Burundian parents who had fled civil war in their country.

They later moved to Adelaide in Australia, where his football journey began. He currently plays for Watford in England. Australia also has Awer Bul Mabil, who plays in the Spanish second division. He was born in Kenya to South Sudanese refugees at Kakuma Refugee Camp.

Alexander Isaak, playing for Sweden, is of Eritrean descent. He scored his first World Cup goal and their second goal in the 5-1 drubbing of Tunisia. Isaak was born in 1999 in Stockholm, Sweden, to refugees from Eritrea. Despite coming from a country with a majority population subscribing to the Islamic faith, the Liverpool striker is Christian.

Embolo, who scored a seventh-minute penalty against Qatar, was born in Yaounde, Cameroon, but his parents separated when he was young. At the age of five, his mother moved with him to France briefly before moving to Basel in Switzerland, where he grew up and began his footballing journey.

Bolagun, who scored two goals for the USA in the 4-1 win over Paraguay, was born in 2001 in the USA, where his then expectant mom had gone for a visit. The airline she was to fly with back to the United Kingdom, where she lived, declined to take her due to the advanced stage of her pregnancy. Bolagun was thus born in New York and returned to London when he was two months old.

He began his career at Arsenal academy who sent him on loan to Middleborough. He moved to Reims in France and currently plays for AS Monaco. He could not break into the England youth national team, which prompted him to accept the overtures from the USA.

Doue siblings are playing for different countries at the World Cup. Desire Doue features for France, while his older brother Guela Doue is representing the Ivory Coast. They were born in France to an Ivorian father and a French mother. Guela is currently playing for RC Strasbourg in the French league while his 19-year-old younger brother turns up for Paris St. Germain.  

Morocco reached the semi-finals of the last edition in Qatar and hopefully, they can surpass that and play in the final after playing to a 1-1 against Brazil.  With ten teams in the tournament, Senegal, Ghana and Ivory Coast can also pull some surprises.