Wayne Lumbasi
The forthcoming Qatar World Cup in 2022 will be historic for African football because all five qualifying African nations – Morocco 🇲🇦, Senegal 🇸🇳, Cameroon 🇨🇲, Tunisia 🇹🇳, and Ghana 🇬🇭 – will be coached by African coaches from the same country.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) described the move as a “massive step for the growth of African coaches, who have now borne the courage to take over at the highest level.”
The defending African champions, Senegal, have had a local coach since Aliou Cissé assumed the position in 2015. Eight years later, the former captain of the national team guided them to their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations victory, and the choice paid off when he was crowned coach of the year at the CAF Awards in July. He qualified the Lions of Teranga for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, therefore he will lead them to the tournament for a second time in a row.
Otto Addo of Ghana used courageous leadership skills to help the Black Stars defeat the highly favored Nigeria and go to the World Cup. Shortly after Ghana was ousted from the Africa Cup of Nations in the group stages, the former international was chosen head coach of the squad, succeeding Milovan Rajevac.
The tactician, who also serves as Dortmund’s assistant coach in the German Bundesliga, used a flawless tactical strategy to outperform a very skilled Nigerian team. He now has everything to prove when he captains the Ghanaian team in Qatar.
Just after Burkina Faso eliminated Tunisia from the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, Jalel Kadri was named head coach of the national squad.
He quickly started to rebuild, which enabled Tunisia to recover from its setback and reach the World Cup. With a thin 1-0 aggregate score, the Tunisians defeated the Mali team to advance. After Abdelmajid Chetali (1978) and Nabil Maâloul (1998), he is the third native strategist to assist Tunisia in reaching the World Cup.
Regragui started out playing football professionally for a number of French teams, including Toulouse, Ajaccio, Dijon, and Grenoble.
In 2012, the 46-year-old started his coaching career with Morocco’s national team as an assistant coach. He recently replaced Vahid Halilhodzic as coach of the Atlas Lions after being appointed by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation.
In February 2022, Rigobert Song, a former professional football player, was chosen to lead Cameroon. Song’s Cameroon qualified for Qatar after overcoming a 1-0 first-leg loss to Algeria to win 2-1 in the comparable match in Algiers and qualify on the away goals rule.
The World Cup qualification proved to be the result he needed to calm the critics who had previously questioned the decision to recruit him.
