It is D-5 before the draw for 35e edition of the African Cup of Nations scheduled for Rabat.
CAF publishes a series of key figures from the most supreme footballing event on the Continent.
*0 – No team will make their debut during this final phase in Morocco.
THE 24 nations present have already taken part, at least once, in this great continental football event, although Botswana and the Comoros are there for the second time.
*1 – Kennedy MweeneZambia’s goalkeeper, holds the record for being the only goalkeeper to have scored at the AFCON, having scored a penalty in a 1-1 draw against Nigeria in the group stage in 2013.
Zambia, who had won the previous title, failed to keep it.
*2 -The Egyptian striker Hassan El-Shazly holds the record for the most hat-tricks scored in the African Cup of Nations, with two achievements, one in 1963 and the other in 1970.
*3– The Ghanaian Charles Gyamfi and the Egyptian Hasan Shehata are the two coaches to have won the CAN trophy three times.
*3 – L’Egypt is the only nation to have won the CAN in three consecutive tournaments, in 2006, 2008 and 2010.
*5 – Laurent Poou holds the record for most goals scored in a single AFCON match, scoring five for Ivory Coast in a 6-1 victory over Ethiopia in 1970.
*6 – Four players have scored in six different editions of the CAN: Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), Eat Alcohol (Zambia), André Ayew (Ghana) and Asamoah Gyan (Ghana).
*7 –Egypt is the most successful nation in the CAN, with a total of seven victories.
Additionally, she won three silver medals and three bronze medals, giving her a total of 13 medals.
On the other hand, the Nigeria has the highest total number of medals, with three gold, five silver and eight bronze, for a total of 16.
*8 – The record for the number of participations in the CAN as a player is held by the Cameroonian Rigobert Songthe Egyptian Ahmed Hassanthe Ghanaian André Ayew and the Tunisian Youssef Msakni, each having taken part in eight editions.
*9 –Ndaye Mulamba, striker from Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), scored a record nine goals during the CAN finals in 1974, allowing his team to win the championship.
*9 –Claude Leroya French coach, holds the record for the most participations with his teams in the CAN, having managed nine editions between 1986 and 2017.
He managed to bring six different teams to the finals: Cameroon (twice), Senegal (twice), Ghana, DR Congo (twice), Congo-Brazzaville and Togo.
*12 – Twelve of the 34 previous host nations have won the CAN on their soil:
- 1959 : United Arab Republic
- 1962 : Ethiopia
- 1963 : Ghana
- 1970 : Sudan
- 1978 : Ghana
- 1980 : Nigeria
- 1986 : Egypt
- 1990 : Algeria
- 1996 : South Africa
- 2004 : Tunisia
- 2006 : Egypt
- 2023 : Ivory Coast
*16 – The youngest player to have participated in a CAN final phase is the Gabonese Shiva N’Zigou. He was 16 years and 93 days old when he took part in the 2000 CAF TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.
*17 -Tunisia holds the record for the greatest number of consecutive participations in the CAN. Morocco 2025 will be their 17th tournament in a row.
*18 – The Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o holds the record for the most goals scored in the CAN finals, with 18 goals in 29 matches spread over six tournaments between 2000 and 2010.
*26 – With 26 matches played in the final phase of the CAN, Egypt is the nation with the most participations, one more than Ivory Coast which occupies second place. Ghana, with 24 participations, finds itself third.
*44 – The oldest player to have participated in the CAN is the Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El-Hadarywho was 44 years and 21 days old when he played against Cameroon in 2017.
*44 – Among the 54 African nations, 44 have already participated in the final stages of the CAN. Indeed, the Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini, Lesotho, São Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, Somalia and South Sudan have never been present.
*111 – Egypt holds the record for the greatest number of matches played in the CAN final phase. Ivory Coast (106), Ghana (105) and Nigeria (104) are the other nations having exceeded the 100 match mark. Egypt also holds the records for most matches won (60) and most goals scored (175).
*119 – THE final phases of 2023 set a new record with 119 goals scoredsurpassing the old record of 102 goals recorded in 2019. These two editions brought together 24 teams. The 1962 tournament remains the one with the highest average goals per match, reaching 4.50, while the 1988 tournament holds the record for the lowest with only 1.44 goals per match.
*1957 – The first final phase of the CAN took place in 1957 and brought together only three teams: Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.
