By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (April 29^th 2023)

The Curtain is Raised

After their failure to host and win the African Nations Championship (CHAN), earlier this year, Algeria has the opportunity to break their duck in the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). This will be the 14^th edition of CAF’s Under-17 AFCON. It will kick off at Algiers’ Nelson Mandela Stadium tonight with the hosts entertaining debutants, Somalia.

Cameroon, the 2019 champions had the longest reign after winning in Tanzania under Thomas Libih – the coach was fired in the air after a poor campaign in the Under-17 World Cup – but despite Zambia’s offer to step in as lost minute hosts after the COVID-19 Pandemic wrecked Morocco’s plans to host the event and CAF chose not to have it hosted elsewhere. That robbed that set of youngsters of their chance to impress and perhaps gain lucrative contracts.

Mali is the only country to have retained their title, winning in both 2015 (hosted by Niger) and 2017, the former boasting the emergence of Nigeria and Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, who top-scored with four goals.

Although they only finished fourth, it was enough to qualify for the Under-17 World Cup. Nigeria won that tournament in Chile in 2015, becoming the first team to ever win the biggest prize in Under-17 football five times. They also retained their trophy. Osimhen alerted the football world to his precocious talent by top-scoring with a mammoth ten goals from all seven matches that Nigeria played in the tournament.

The 2019 tournament suffered controversy as hosts Tanzania was deprived of their first choice goalkeeper (see A Festering Sore at https://empowersmag.com/empowersmagwp/2023/04/29/a-festering-sore/) but an even greater controversy emerged as Guinea was ejected from the records of the tournament for fielding players whose passports did not match those given for the same players at a previous tournament. Sénégal replaced Guinea. Algeria last hosted this tournament in 2009, but has yet to win the Under-17 AFCON. 49-year-old coach, Arezki Remmane, will be looking to put that right. They open their campaign against debutants, Somalia at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers.