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EMPICS Sport
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Although these coaches have marked the Cup of Nations, the tournament and its ongoing success is down to its players: the ones who have achieved greatness on the back of their performances, and those for whom merely competing is an accomplishment in itself.
Plane crash From the latter camp comes the story of Zambia and their amazing efforts in the 1994 CAN. Just one year earlier, in April 1993, the entire squad, apart from team captain Kalusha Bwalya, who was based in Holland and had made his own travel arrangements, died when their military plane crashed en route to Senegal. It was truly remarkable, then, that a newly-assembled side, still led by the grieving Bwalya, reached the final of the 1994 edition, remaining unbeaten all the way. Although they took an early lead in the final against Nigeria, they were defeated 2-1 – but could never be called losers after that. Two years later came another notable success: South Africa, absent from international football for nearly three decades due to FIFA’s apartheid suspension from 1964 to 22 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
1992, managed to win the first ever Cup of Nations they contested. To add to the lustre, it was at home, in 1996, and Nelson Mandela was present at the 2-0 final win over Tunisia (of course, he was wearing a Bafana Bafana jersey). The beauty of the CAN is that just taking part is sometimes enough: witness the minor miracle achieved by Rwanda, who qualified for the 2004 tournament just ten years after genocide had wiped out a sizeable majority of their population. And the team, made up of a mixture of Hutus and Tutsis, performed admirably, winning one, drawing one and losing one in their three group matches in their only appearance in the competition. One thing is for sure: in Angola next month, a new player will come along and stun everyone, just as Angola’s Manucho did two years ago (just weeks after signing a deal with Manchester United). The history of players that have starred in the Cup of Nations is long and rich, with Africa’s finest all there: Laurent Pokou of Ivory Coast was the first to make himself noticed, scoring six goals in 1968 and eight in 1970, including five in a 6-1 win against Ethiopia. Despite the goals, his side only
finished fourth in the end, losing the semifinal to eventual winners Ghana. At the time, Pokou was playing for Ivorian side ASEC Abidjan, but his scoring record helped him move to France, where he played for Stade Français, Rennes (twice) and Nancy. Zaire’s Mulumba Ndaye eclipsed Pokou’s individual tournament total by scoring a record nine goals in the 1974 edition. However, that tally was helped by Zaire reaching the final against Zambia. After drawing 2-2 and playing a replay for the only time in CAN history, Zaire won that 2-0 with Ndaye scoring all four goals. He went into the World Cup later that year as the talisman of the first black African nation to compete, but left somewhat tarnished after he was sent off during a humiliating 9-0 loss to Yugoslavia. In the 1980s, the Cup of Nations underwent a huge change, as up until 1982 only Africa-based players could play in the competition. When the ban on all those playing overseas was lifted, it effectively marked the real beginning of an exodus to Europe, which only reached serious levels in the 1990s. There are still many African football connoisseurs who insist that Africa’s best football period was in the 1970s