The following African nations have qualified for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil:
1. Algeria
2. Cameroon
3. Nigeria
4. Ghana
5. Ivory Coast
Africa has five slots to fill at the competition and those are the countries that have filled the slots.
However, this post is not about African teams that have qualified for the World Cup. Rather, it intends to ask a troubling question about African football. At the World Cup level, the best an African country has performed is to reach the quarterfinals and this was first done by Cameroon in the heydays of the football magician, Roger Milla, the best African footballer who ever lived. Now, some are wondering whether any of the current slate of teams would even make it to the quarterfinals. If this is done, it seems, it would be counted as a good achievement for African football. With African football, it seems that few ever nurse the hope of actually winning the World Cup. This is a strange place to be for two significant reasons. First, African countries have defeated countries that have eventually won the World Cup. Second, at the junior levels of the World Cup, African countries have won the trophy several times.
This brings me to the troubling question that led to this post: how is it that African countries can win the World Cup at the junior levels but fail to do so even once at the senior level? At what point do things go wrong for African teams as they move from the junior to the senior levels of the competition? If African countries have won the junior levels World Cup, one would imagine that it is possible for them to win the trophy at the senior level. Why is it that this has not happened and no one seems to be thinking that this should happen soon?
1. Algeria
2. Cameroon
3. Nigeria
4. Ghana
5. Ivory Coast
Africa has five slots to fill at the competition and those are the countries that have filled the slots.
However, this post is not about African teams that have qualified for the World Cup. Rather, it intends to ask a troubling question about African football. At the World Cup level, the best an African country has performed is to reach the quarterfinals and this was first done by Cameroon in the heydays of the football magician, Roger Milla, the best African footballer who ever lived. Now, some are wondering whether any of the current slate of teams would even make it to the quarterfinals. If this is done, it seems, it would be counted as a good achievement for African football. With African football, it seems that few ever nurse the hope of actually winning the World Cup. This is a strange place to be for two significant reasons. First, African countries have defeated countries that have eventually won the World Cup. Second, at the junior levels of the World Cup, African countries have won the trophy several times.
This brings me to the troubling question that led to this post: how is it that African countries can win the World Cup at the junior levels but fail to do so even once at the senior level? At what point do things go wrong for African teams as they move from the junior to the senior levels of the competition? If African countries have won the junior levels World Cup, one would imagine that it is possible for them to win the trophy at the senior level. Why is it that this has not happened and no one seems to be thinking that this should happen soon?
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