Over the years, African countries have underperformed at the FIFA World Cup but this year’s showpiece has so far seen an improvement with Senegal already in the knockout stage while Ghana, Cameroon, and Morocco are also still in the race heading into the final group matches.
Morocco national team coach, Walid Regragui who become the first Moroccan coach to win a World Cup match after beating Belgium 2-0 at the ongoing Qatar World Cup, believes that African countries have now proved that they are equal to the very best countries from Europe and South America.
Speaking ahead of his team’s final group-stage match against Canada, Regragui insisted that African teams are on the right path to winning the world cup.
“Obviously, Morocco is my priority, but we are also African, as Senegal are, as Ghana are, as Cameroon and Tunisia are, so we hope to fly the flag of African football high,” he said. “Often, we have been described as being ‘sub-par’, that somehow African football wasn’t as good as elsewhere.”
“But at this World Cup, I think we are showing we can give any other team a run for their money, whether we are talking about European or South American teams.”
In response to his first-ever World Cup win against the Belgians, Regragui said he hopes to see more African teams beating top-ranked European countries and even winning the World Cup.
“I hope in the future we will be seeing this from more African teams and why not an African nation winning the World Cup? he asked.
The Atlas Lions last reached the knockout stage in 1986, and today they will need only a point to book a place in the last 16 of the tournament when they face Canada.
