Africa now has a new reigning queen as the Tout puissant Mazembe won their first-ever women’s Champions League.
We have a new winner after two weeks of competition with eight teams from seven countries for the fourth Champions League edition.
For the first time in the CAF Champions League, the Democratic Republic of Congo side has become the third team to win the Champions League in women’s and men’s sides, as the previous winners of As Far and Sundowns have done.
Also, for the first time, Lamia Boumehdithe former Moroccan international and now the TP Mazembe coach, has become the first-ever female coach to lead her team to the African Champions League trophy.
Tp Mazembe won the final against the host team in El Jadida’s stadium, Ben Ahmed El Abdi. This was in front of 15,000 supporters, mostly Moroccans, as this competition is being played in Morocco for the third time. It was against the biggest club in Morocco.
The Moroccan fans backed the home side for most of the game, but Mazembe played a tactical game and converted a penalty kick by Marlene Kasaj in the 10th minute. The RD Congo side played safe and did everything possible to concede this win.
For most of the first half, As Far attacked and tried to find a solution, but nothing went through. At the start of the second half, Mazembe attempted to score the second goal but without success.
With the final whistle, TP Mazembe was awarded the fourth ever Champions League title, and now they are taking the bigger prize of $600 000, as the former champion and now the runner-up As Far team will take only $400 000 home.
Even though Mazembe was crowned the new queen of African clubs, the three-player awards for the tournaments were given to two As Far players and one FC Massar player.
The word Mssoudythe Moroccan forward, was crowned the tournament’s best player as she led her team to the final. Sanaa was voted player of the match as she scored two times, created chances for her team, and gave assists.
6 is the number of goals scored by Doha El Madaniand with that, she won the tournament’s Top Goalscorer. The 19-year-old Moroccan player has a clinical finish and will have a bright future if she continues having these performances.
As the goalkeeper of the tournament, the FC Masar Goalkeeper Habiba's Mothers was awarded Best Keeper.
FC Massar won the Fair Play Award. The Egyptian team won this award for respecting and disciplining their opponents, and they placed third in the Champions League competition.
This competition means a lot to the African teams, as they only have a few games against each other during the season. So, playing a two-week championship has been a significant change for African football for four years.
This competition is starting to change the view on women’s football for the host of the competition. We can see that the stadium is Completed during the final, but that is not the case for the remaining competition.
More marketing around this championship should be done to attract more viewers and fans to the games. The games were only shown on YouTube by the CAF TV channel. This is an excellent start to have it on for free for everyone, but channels like Bein Sport that are watched around the MENA region should also show these games. So more people can join the fanbase.
