ONE of Senegal’s most prominent former players, El Hadji Diouf, believes it his country’s time to finally end their Africa Cup of Nations drought.
The rearranged 2021 edition of the tournament will be held in Cameroon from 9 January to 6 February.
The Teranga Lions have reached the competition’s final twice (in 2002 and 2019) but have never won the continent’s most important football trophy.
Diouf, who was named African Footballer of the Year in 2001 and 2002, is confident Senegal are ready to go all the way this time.
“My first favorite is Senegal, who lost last edition final to Algeria, and today we must win,” the former Liverpool star told CAF Online.
“Anything we do without winning the trophy will be failure. There are other great teams, and it will be a very tough competition, perhaps the toughest in recent years and in a country that loves football. It would be a big football party.”
Diouf was in the Senegal team that reached the 2002 final in Mali where they lost to Cameroon.
He explains what that team lacked, although they also became the second African team in history to reach the World Cup quarter-finals that same year.
“I can say experience. There was talent and determination but only experience was lacking in our Mali adventure,” he noted. “Rather, we played on our quality without calculating. It would have taken a little bit of experience to win those kinds of games.”
Senegal are currently Africa’s top ranked team by FIFA and have in their squad some of the continent’s best players, including Liverpool’s Sadio Mane, Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy.
The West Africans have had generations of such quality players but have fallen short at AFCON.
Diouf believes the present crop have an edge over his 2002 set, and this will propel them to the title in February.
He said: “The difference between the two generations is that this one has been fortunate enough to have played together for several years, and to have taken part in many Africa Cup of Nations finals.
“They’ve played at some big clubs and they’re leaders there. Also, they’ve learned how to win. In our time that was not the case, not all of us played for big clubs. I can say that this generation has everything to win the AFCON title now. These players need the support of all Senegalese.”
The Teranga Lions are in Group B with Zimbabwe, Guinea and Malawi.
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