* The rich AfCON history has been built on great performances and feats of brilliance in the past
* Katongo captained the Chipolopolo to clinch their first-ever African title in 2012
* A feat that eluded Zambia’s greatest player ever, former African Player of the Year, Kalusha Bwalya
Maravi Express
The bi-annual Africa Cup of Nations (AfCON) is the continent’s greatest football fiesta that brings together the greatest African stars based across the world — it is a must-go to including its other events on the sidelines.
Advertisement
Thus making it as one of the African legends to be responsible for the draw of the AfCON Morocco 2025 on Monday, January 7, is an honour for Zambia’s Christopher Katongo, who captained the Chipolopolo to clinch their first-ever African title in 2012, a feat that eluded Zambia’s greatest player ever, former African Player of the Year, Kalusha Bwalya.
He is amongst five others — Cameroon’s Patrick Mboma, Côte d’Ivoire’s Gervais Yao Kouassi, Egypt’s Essam El Hadary, Mali’s Momo Sissoko and Tunisia’s Aymen Mathlouthi when the event will be staged at the Mohammed V National Theatre in Rabat on Monday.
The Legends have written their names into the history books as great ambassadors for their countries and African football as a whole, and will bring added gravitas to the star-studded event that will get under way at 18h00 GMT.
The rich AfCON history has been built on great performances and feats of brilliance in the past, and Katongo — the only representative from Council for Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA) — and his fellow Legends who will be in Rabat have certainly played their part.
Katongo was Player of the Tournament at the 2012 AfCON finals where he captained Zambia to their first continental title and he was among the players who successfully netted a kick in the post-match penalty shootout in the final against the all-powerful Côte d’Ivoire.
Côte d’Ivoire then boasted of greatest players ever that included Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure and Katongo’s side denied Drogba the sensation of lifting the AfCON title on his last mile to his retirement from international football.
Katongo scored at four separate AfCON tournaments from 2006 to 2012 and played professionally in South Africa (where he won the Golden Boot), Denmark and in the German Bundesliga.
Patrick Mboma (Cameroon)
Mboma was African Footballer of the Year in 2000 after playing a pivotal role for Cameroon as they won the AfCON, which was co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria.
Mboma scored in the semi-final and final and was back on the winners’ podium in Mali two years later as the Indomitable Lions won again.
He competed in four AfCON finals, netting 11 goals and he also won Olympic gold with Cameroon in Sydney in 2000 and competed at two World Cup finals.
Gervinho (Côte d’Ivoire)
Gervais Yao Kouassi was among the most exciting footballers of his generation and an AfCON winner with the Elephants in 2015.
He competed at five tournaments in total from 2008 to 2015, also finishing as runner-up in 2012.
He was in the Ivorian team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and scored twice at the 2014 finals in Brazil.
At club level he is fabled for his part in helping unfashionable Lille win Ligue 1 in 2011 before going onto play at Arsenal and Roma.
Essam El Hadary (Egypt)
The goalkeeper has unique place in football history as the oldest player at a FIFA World Cup, aged 45 years and 161 days when he competed for Egypt at the finals in Russia.
His career with the Pharaohs spanned an incredible 22 years from his debut in 1996 to 2018, and saw him win 159 caps.
At the AfCON finals, he was in Egypt’s winning squads in 1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010, and also won three CAF Champions League titles with Al Ahly.
Momo Sissoko (Mali)
Sissoko played for Mali at the AfCON finals in 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2013, where they finished in third place in the latter tournament. He also scored a goal in the opening game in 2004 against Kenya.
His illustrious club career took in stints at Valencia, Liverpool, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain, and his honours include both a La Liga and Ligue 1 title.
Aymen Mathlouthi (Tunisia)
Nicknamed ‘Balbouli’, he kept the goals for Tunisia at four AfCON finals in 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2017. He was also in the squad for the finals in 2008 and 2013.
In a distinguished career with Etoile du Sahel, he won both the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup, and helped Tunisia to success in the 2011 African Nations Championship in Sudan.
Mathlouthi also played at the FIFA World Cup finals in Russia in 2018.—Content by CAFonline; edited by Maravi Express
Advertisement