Two Burkinabes living a dream at 2021 AFCON—coach Kamou Malo and his player son Patrick Malo

Patrick and Kamou Malo

CAFonline

One of the most beautiful stories of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations AFCON Cameroon 2021 — in addition to their qualification for the semi-finals of the continent’s flagship tournament — two Stallions from Burkina Faso are living a dream: coach Kamou Malo and and his player son, central defender Patrick Malo.

The two men fly the colors of Burkina Faso during this TotalEnergies AFCON, with the aim of going as far as possible and trying to win the title.

“My objective has been reached contractually, but the desire is there to go far” says the Burkinabe coach.

At 59, Kamou Malo has been leading the Stallions since July 2019 and in two and a half years, he has led Burkina Faso to second place behind Algeria in the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers group, and to TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations semifinal.

For the Burkinabe coach, having his son in his selection is nothing but pride.

“Patrick is a very good player. He has been part of the Stallions for several years, even before I took over in 2019,” declares the former player of US Ouagadougou and Etoile Filante.

“He faces stiff competition in his position and must still work hard within the selection. He played in the opener as we had a lot of absentees due to CoVID-19 but he remains one of the players we rely on in the squad,” added the coach.

Patrick, central defender of Hassania d’Agadir in Morocco, has already 22 caps with the Stallions since his first appearance in the Burkinabe jersey on October 9, 2015 under former coach Gernot Rohr.

At 30, the former player of JS Kabylie (Algeria) and Smouha (Egypt), also dreams of reaching the final on February 6 at the Olembe stadium. Before that, the Stallions will have a lot to do this evening against Senegal, last edition runners-up.

More blood ties in AFCON

Through AFCON history and to the current edition of the TotalEnergies AFCON, there had been a lot of blood ties in the participating teams.

National teams have some players who, in addition to wearing the same shirt, are united by blood ties.

Ghana has accustomed African football observers to selecting the Ayew brothers, André and his younger brother Jordan together since 2012 AFCON.

They are the sons of Abedi Pele, who won the 1982 title and lost 1992 final with the Black Stars.

This is the case of the Comoros, who played their first ever AFCON finals. They had brothers Mohamed and Youssouf M’changama who were born in Marseille, France.

Mohamed M’changama was recalled to the Coelacanthes in March 2021. He had the honor of experiencing the historic qualification of the Comoros for TotalEnergies AFCON 2021.

There, he reunited with his brother Youssouf, who had a straighter trajectory going from the amateur division in France to becoming a recognized player in the French Ligue 2 with EN Guingamp.

In addition to M’changama brothers, Comoros had the Abdallahs, an uncle and his nephew.

At 34, Kassim Abdallah, who played in Marseille (France) trains his nephew Abdallah Ali Mohamed (22).

In Senegal and Guinea Bissau, there was the elder, Alfred Gomis and his younger brother, Maurice respectively defending two different camps.

Alongside Alfred Gomis who took over in 2019 from Lys Gomis who played for Senegal at 2015 AFCON and was selected for the 2021 edition, the youngest Maurice chose to join the Djurtus from Guinea Bissau, the country of birth of their mother.

Senegal has known in the recent history of its football, brothers evolving in selection at the same time with Lamine and Ricardo Sané who played matches together.

But these two have never taken part in AFCON finals together, with Lamine Sané playing in Africa Cup of Nations in 2012 and 2015.

Burkina Faso also had the brothers Alain and Bertrand Traoré from 2012 AFCON.

They were together in 2017 and 2019, but the only representative in Cameroon is Bertrand. Elder brother Alain Traoré has recently joined Arta Solar in Djibouti after leaving RS Berkane (Morocco).

In 2015, when the Elephants were crowned, the French coach Hervé Renard was able to count on the Touré brothers; Kolo who was playing at the time in Liverpool and his younger brother Yaya, who was in the heyday of Manchester City, always in the Premier League.

Record seven-time champions Egypt had blood brothers with Hassan twins, Hossam and Ibrahim who played together at the AFCON in 1988, 1992 and 2000.

In 1959 and 1962, there were the Selim brothers Saleh and Tarek Selim among the Pharaohs.

Ikramy family was also there, the father Ikramy who played the editions of 1974, 1976, 1980 and 1984, and the son Sherif who was there in Gabon 2017 where Mohamed Salah teammates lost to Cameroon in the final.