From December 21st to January 18th
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The Africa Cup of Nations starts its 35th edition on December 21st. There will also be 21 players from German clubs who will be missing from their clubs in the coming weeks. Bayer Leverkusen provides most of them with four professionals. But players from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th German leagues were also nominated for the tournament, which runs until January 18th in Morocco. The most valuable participant in the final round is Achraf Hakimi, a player from the host team, the team with the highest squad value is Senegal with Bayern Munich’s Nicolas Jackson. Transfermarkt gives an overview.
The Werkself are temporarily without Christian Kofane (Cameroon), Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso), Eliesse Ben Seghir (Morocco) and Ibrahim Maza (Algeria). Kofane will only travel to his national team after the top Bundesliga game on Saturday evening at RB Leipzig (to the news). This was also possible because Cameroon only starts the game against Gabon on December 24th. Together, the Leverkusen quartet is worth 87 million euros; only five clubs in the world have professionals with a higher total value.
FC Augsburg will have to make do without three players for the time being. Elias Saad, Ismaël Gharbi (both Tunisia) and Samuel Essende (DR Congo) have been on the road for their national teams since Monday. RB Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt are each sending a duo with Yan Diomande (Ivory Coast) and Amadou Haidara (Mali) and Ellyes Skhiri (Tunisia) and Farès Chaïbi (Algeria). While Diomande’s absence will have a significant impact on the Red Bulls with eleven scorers so far, Haidara played no role and will reportedly join RC Lens after the tournament.
In addition to Bayern with Chelsea loanee Jackson, there is also a secondment at VfB Stuttgart with Bilal El Khannouss (Morocco), at TSG Hoffenheim with Bazoumana Touré (Ivory Coast), at SC Freiburg with Cyriaque Irié (Burkina Faso), VfL Wolfsburg with Mohamed Amoura and at Borussia Dortmund with Ramy Bensebaini (both Algeria). Also affected are VfL Bochum with Ibrahima Sissoko (Mali) and 1. FC Magdeburg with Lubambo Musonda (Zambia) from the 2nd Bundesliga, Erzgebirge Aue with Jonah Fabisch (Zimbabwe) from the 3rd league and BSG Chemie Leipzig with Stanley Ratifo (Mozambique) from the regional league. The center forward made it to the African Championships for the second time as an amateur outside of the professionals.
From a German perspective, Werder’s Victor Boniface, who is suffering from a bruised knee, and Leverkusen’s Nathan Tella (both Nigeria) were not taken into account. Andréas Hountondji from FC St. Pauli was actually called up by Benin, but was left out due to a left thigh injury. BVB striker Serhou Guirassy missed qualification – with a market value of 45 million euros, the Guinean would have been part of the top 10 most valuable players in the Africa Cup.
Hakimi most valuable player at the Africa Cup of Nations – Salah dreams of his first title
The ranking is led by PSG professional Hakimi with 80 million euros, who was recently sidelined with a sprained ankle after FC Bayern’s Luis Díaz was fouled in the Champions League. However, Africa’s Footballer of the Year traveled to the Moroccan national team without walking aids and was able to begin his individual training. In addition to Hakimi and Jackson, five other professionals are also worth at least 50 million euros, including ex-Frankfurt Omar Marmoush (Egypt) and Galatasaray’s Victor Osimhen (Nigeria).
Mohamed Salah produced most of the headlines before the tournament. The offensive star of struggling Liverpool FC publicly complained about his lack of playing time, which is why his future with the Reds after the African Cup remains open even after a clarifying conversation with coach Arne Slot. For the Egyptian captain, it is his fifth participation in the African Cup, he has not yet won the title and at 33 years old, time is slowly running out.
At the age of 36, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also continues to dream of holding this trophy in his hands for the first time. The former Dortmund player will be missing from Gabon’s first group game. An injury to the back of his left thigh, which the striker sustained at the weekend while playing for Olympique Marseille, will initially be treated in France. Bitter for his national team, because the leading player had previously played brilliantly with 18 scorers in 20 games for OM.
Since 2019, the field of participants in the Africa Cup has included 24 nations, which fight in the preliminary round in six groups of four teams each for a place in the final round. The two best-placed teams and four of the six third-place teams advance to the round of 16. Numerous nations are considered favorites, as no country has been able to defend its title in the last seven editions. The current champion is Ivory Coast, which Germany will face at the World Cup next year, as well as Senegal, record winners Egypt, hosts Morocco, Nigeria, Algeria and Cameroon. The Africa Cup will be broadcast by “Sportdigital”, which can also be received via “DAZN”.