Good talents. Players in big European clubs. Athletes with experience in strong leagues. A historical idol of the country in charge. Continental title. Switching without Brazil and Germany nearby. Argentina? Far away. The second best player in the world in the squad. Even without mentioning which country we are talking about, it would be easy to imagine the potential of going far in the Cup.
Would be. But he had the fibula. Right leg surgery. And Sadio Mané, one of the superstars of the 2022 World Cup, is out of the tournament. The injury took away the element that allowed the less severe look at the lack of weight in the team’s shirt.
Senegal continues with a good team. Goalkeeper Mendy (Chelsea), defender Kalidou Koulibaly (Chelsea), midfielder Idrissa Gueye (Everton) and midfielder Nampalys Mendy (Leicester City). All in the Premier League, the strongest today. They form a competitive base. The country is still favorite to qualify with the Netherlands, in a group with Qatar and Ecuador. But then what?
In the knockout stage, Mané is the type of player that teams need, especially the less popular ones, to solve a tight game, to be that differential that surprises more traditional teams. No defender could say calm with Sadio in charge of the opposing attack.
Predicting results in football is futerology and an almost certain path towards embarrassment. I won’t, no. But I dare say that I saw in this Senegal the potential to become the African team to go further in the history of the World Cups.
Only three teams from the continent have reached the quarterfinals of a Cup. Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002), and Ghana (2010), the closest. The Ghanaians missed a penalty in the last minute of extra time against Uruguay.
The African teams began to participate in the World Cup of soccer in the tournament disputed in 1934, with Egypt. After a hiatus, they only returned to competition in 1970, against Morocco.
Prior to the 1970s, it was a period in which countries, for the most part, were dealing with the struggle to end colonization. Not that the geopolitical issue in the region was simple either, afterwards. Not to mention the disinterest of the tournament in their participation.
Of course, we had great stars parading in the World Cups for other African teams over the years. Roger Milla and Samuel Eto’o in different generations of Cameroon. Jay-Jay Okocha and Kanu, in the same generation from Nigeria. Didier Drogba, for Ivory Coast, to name just a few.
However, perhaps they didn’t have such well-prepared companions. Maybe they didn’t have a viable (albeit difficult) switch. Maybe they didn’t go to the tournament packed after a continental title. Certainly, they did not have all these elements at the same time.
Led by Mané, Senegal won the African Cup of Nations earlier this year. For the first time. The player had already made history for Liverpool and started his career at Bayern Munich well. Excitement was high in an attempt to mess up the lives of the big teams.
Senegal loses. The impact that the sudden absence of this type of player can have on the mood and confidence of the group is unknown.
Loses the Cup. The strange regulations of the African qualifier for the tournament put the two best teams on the continent in the fight for a single place. At the feet of Mané, Egypt was eliminated in the match. Another star, Mohamed Salah, was left out of the Cup. Now, Sadio Mane.
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