African team of the season
From defensive stalwarts, to midfield mavericks and an ineligible forward; this team has it all.
It’s that time of the year again! When the football has (for the most part) taken a break and we let our European and American brothers and sisters have a turn in the spotlight. Yes, the Euros and Copa America can’t hold a candle to the AFCON but we’ll have to make do.
While I take some time off as well I thought I’d have a bit more fun with this piece and try to put together an African XI of the season. Unlike most teams of the season though, this one transcends single competitions or performances simply for club or country in a single competition. We have players to choose from plying their trade across the world in league like the PSL, the Premier League or the Saudi Pro League, and of course from the AFCON. In my XI, I’ve sought to celebrate players’ achievements around the world and not simply look at who are the best XI players on the continent which is a far more boring exercise.
Without further ado, this is my African team of the season:
Goalkeeper: Ronwen Williams
This was perhaps the easiest decision of the XI. While Andre Onana struggled to maintain his excellence at Manchester United and others like Yassine Bounou similarly not hitting the same heights, Ronwen Williams has gone from strength to strength. Viewers of the PSL have known for years that Williams is a top class keeper but this was the year that he announced himself on the world stage when he starred in the AFCON. But it was in the quarter finals where he really elevated himself, saving not one, not two, not three but four penalties in the shoot out against Cape Verde (the only player to make four saves at any major international tournament).
Not only did he captain Bafana Bafana to an unlikely semi-final but he led Mamelodi Sundowns to an inaugural African Football League title and another PSL title that in which they went undefeated until the last game of the season.
Right Back: Achraf Hakimi
Because of the hegemonic structures of football being against Africans, it is very rare to see African footballers spend their entire careers at the elite level. Either they come from the continent to Europe at a much older age than their European and South American counterparts, or they are from the diaspora and return to Mama Africa at an older age. Achraf Hakimi is the exception. He has been an elite African since he was a teenager lifting the Champions League with a Moroccan flag draped on his shoulders.
And it was another stellar season with PSG and Morocco in which he notched up 9 goal contributions in the league for PSG on his way to being in the team of the season for a second season in a row. And bar a Ronwen Williams’ saved penalty (which in retrospect seemed inevitable) he had a stellar AFCON and was often Morocco’s attacking outlet on the right wing with Hakim Ziyech.
Left Back: Ali Maâloul
When the dust settles on Ali Maâloul’s career, I think we will realise that not only is he arguably’ Al Ahly’s greatest left backs, but one of the best left backs ever to play on the continent. Tireless, experienced and full of quality, the Tunisian was at the heart of a treble winning Al Ahly team who continue to redefine what excellence is in African football. Not only is he one of the best defenders in the continent but it’s when he can maraud forward that he is in his element, perhaps best when he grabbed a brace of assists against TP Mazembe in the semi-final of the CAF Champions League to break the deadlock just when the Congolese were on top and Al Ahly looked like they might be knocked out of the tournament.
Centre Back: William Troost-Ekong
King Ekong has had a wonderful Indian summer, split between Abidjan and Thessaloniki. Not only has he seemingly become the most eco-conscious footballer this season, even wearing recycled boots, but he has recycled and revived hope in the Super Eagles as he led them to the AFCON final. Not only was he captain of the meanest defence at the tournament, but he became the first centre back to score three goals at the tournament, including twice against tournament winners Côte d'Ivoire. It’s crazy to think that before the tournament, he wasn’t sure he would even make the team but would go onto captain the Super Eagles and be named player of the tournament.
Alongside his international exploits, he was a key part (until his season-ending injury in February) in PAOK’s first Greek Super League title in five years in which they pipped AEK Athens and Europa Conference winning Olympiacos to the title.
Centre Back: Wilfried Singo
Partnering Troost-Ekong was one of the hardest decisions on this list and to be honest it could have been any of the three Ivorian centre backs of Odilon Kossounou, Evan N’dicka and Singo. But it was Singo’s league form that propelled him above the other two. Not only was an AFCON winner with Côte d'Ivoire but he had a brilliant season with Monaco in France. Whether played as a centre back in a back three, in a back two or as a right back Singo has been excellent, capped off by a man of the match performance against PSG in March where he marshalled Kylian Mbappé. Phenomenally physically dominant, excellent at reading the game and with an ever-excelling capacity to bomb on forward, it’s no wonder that he’s linked with clubs like Manchester United this summer.
Central Midfielder: Teboho Mokoena
Silky smooth, an engine that never stops running and the best moustache in football, not only is Teboho Mokoena the heart of this team but he’s probably the best looking one of the lot. Mokoena have another brilliant season with Mamelodi Sundowns (and is favourite to win the player of the season award), but like his teammate Williams, it was at the AFCON where he really showed his class. While key players like Percy Tau struggled on Africa’s biggest stage, it was Mokoena who put Bafana Bafana on his back to carry them to the semi finals. And while this is a team of the season, a season is made of moments and there perhaps was no better moment than when Mokoena stroked that freekick into the top bins against Morocco in the quarter finals of the AFCON.
Central Midfielder: Franck Kessié
Speaking of moments. Côte d'Ivoire’s entire AFCON campaign got off the ground thanks to one man and one man alone, Franck Kessié. He came off the bench against Senegal in the Round of Sixteen with the team 1-0 down, in the gutter, against Africa’s best team. Kessié scored the equaliser to take the game to extra time and then again in the penalty shoot out he scored the final penalty to begin the most improbable journey in sporting history. He followed it up with two excellent performances against Mali and DRC before again scoring the all important equaliser in the final against Nigeria to win the country’s second ever AFCON title. Couple that with an excellent season in Saudi Arabia where he scored 10 goals from midfield for Al Ahli and it has been a great season for the former Barcelona and AC Milan man.
Right Wing: Ademola Lookman
Another man for the moment. I remember in the Round of 16 match between Nigeria and Cameroon at the AFCON, Lookman put in a crunching tackle in the second minute and I remember thinking that he was up for this and might do something in the Stade Félix Houphouët Boigny. It was a rare moment of clarity from myself and Lookman who scored a brace would go onto score again against Angola in the quarter finals and eventually find himself on the team of the tournament.
But what propelled him onto his list was his club form. Not only did he notch up 18 goal contributions in Seria A but in the Europa League final, against the best team in Europe this season in Bayer Leverkusen, Lookman bagged a stunning hattrick to hand Leverkusen their first loss of the season and clinch a first trophy for Atalanta in 61 years.
Left Wing: Stephane Aziz Ki
Definitely the least known player on this list, Stephane Aziz Ki nevertheless had a stellar season. The number 10/winger moved to Yanga in Tanzania from ASEC Mimosas in Abidjan when he would have been expected to move to Europe or North Africa and the Burkinabe never looked back. He notched up 21 goals and 8 assists in just 27 games as Yanga won a third successive Ligi Kuu Bara title. With another four goal involvements in the Champions League and goals in both Kariakoo Derbies against Simba, he stepped up in the biggest moments. Crucially, CAF used goal line technology he would have also scored the most important goal in Yanga’s history in the Champions League quarter finals against Mamelodi Sundowns.
He was rewarded by his exploits with a call up to the Burkina Faso squad and became the first player in Tanzanian club history to represent a nation from outside the CECAFA region at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Attacking Midfielder: Mohamed Kudus
Starboy took another step towards becoming an elite footballer this season with another scintillating season for a decidedly average West Ham team and a dreadful Ghanaian side. He was David Moyes’ side’s top scorer in the Europa League and despite often being asked to play a functional role in a defensive team, still found ways to score some spectacular goals. That overhead kick against Manchester City will live long in the memory.
For the Black Stars, Kudus notched up 3 goals in qualifying for the AFCON before missing the first game of the tournament through injury. But in his first game of the tournament against Egypt Kudus pulled out arguably the performance of the tournament in which he tormented the Egyptian defence and grabbed a brace. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as for the second tournament in a row, Ghana crashed out in humiliating circumstances. Cue the Kudus meme.
Centre Forward: Emilio Nsue
Certainly the strangest pick on this list. Emilio Nsue isn’t even a forward for his club Intercity CF. He plays as a defender for the third division Spanish club. And Nsue has been in the news more off the pitch as he was initially suspended from the Equatorial Guinea team before going on Instagram Live with teammate Iban Salvador to accuse the federation of corruption and incompetence. That accusation was nearly immediately justified when it turned out that Feguifut had not submitted the proper paperwork when registering Nsue as a player more than a decade ago leading to the last two World Cup qualifier 1-0 wins (both goals scored by Nsue) being chalked off and instead ruled as 3-0 losses.
But for a couple weeks, Nsue shed his defensive club shirt to become Africa’s most lethal forward, scoring five goals in three games, including a hattrick against hosts Côte d'Ivoire. Not since Zaire’s legendary Ndaye Mulamba have we seen such prolific scoring, but to do it as one of the smallest nations puts Nsue into the echelons of one of the greatest tournament performances ever at the AFCON. Despite a crucial penalty miss the Round of 16, Nsue outscored Africa’s elite etch his name in AFCON history. I doubt we will ever see anything like his performance ever again.