Expect more surprises in event that is full of them

WHEN every game, every goal in modern football tends to be described as potentially the best ever, the extent to which the last edition of the Africa Cup of Nations was universally recognised as a bit of a dud was almost reassuring.

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It began with a round of 12 group stage that brought just 12 goals and finished with only a penalty shootout victory by Senegal sparing us all the mental gymnastics required to hail an Egypt side who scored once in four knockout matches as worthy winners.

And so it is with a degree of trepidation that one looks ahead to what appears a wide-open successor. It begins tomorrow in the Ivory Coast with as many as nine feasible winners and a new breed of talismen, led by Ghana’s Mohammed Kudus and Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen, adding further star power to the established headline trio of Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, and Riyad Mahrez.

While billing of the next month as Salah’s last chance may be wide of the mark (neither the Liverpool man’s performances, nor abdominal profile suggest he will not still be fit and firing by the next renewal in only 18 months’ time), it remains a strange curiosity that the best player to hail from Africa’s most successful footballing nation has never ruled the continent.