African football: Top 10 Events Fans Can't Afford To Miss in 2025

African football: 10 Events Fans Can't Afford To Miss in 2025

Sampson Adedeji 

The year 2024 has delivered its share of emotions with the victory of Ivory Coast at the African Cup of Nations, the bronze medal of Morocco at the Paris Olympics or the coronation of the Nigerian Ademola Lookman, African Player of the Year. 

The year 2025 promises to be even richer with in particular the election of the presidency of the CAF, the list of countries that will represent Africa at the 2026 World Cup and the CHAN in Morocco.

 Here are the ten events to tick off in your African football diary in 2025.

1. The draw for the 2025 AFCON will thus launch the year 2025 of African football and it will take place on January 27 in Rabat. The 24 qualified countries will know their opponents and will have almost a year to prepare for their group matches.

2. February 1st, the 2025 Championship of African Nations will open, which should have taken place in 2024. As with every edition, the African Nations Championship is dragging its fragility and its share of uncertainties; the stadiums in Kenya are not yet ready, the draw has not yet been made... This time again, the CHAN will be marked by the withdrawals of Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt who did not take part in the qualifications. Only Morocco will represent North Africa in a competition that promises to be exciting nonetheless. The defending champion, Senegal, will be there, as will the DR Congo, record holder for victories.

3. In the first half of March, the election for the presidency of CAF will take place. Elected four years ago during a special election with the withdrawal at the last moment of his competitors, the South African Patrice Motsepe should quietly re-enlist. The businessman who will be 63 years old on January 28 is the only candidate for his succession.

4. Who will succeed Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the Marc-Vivien Foé Prize? Next May, the prize awarded by RFI/France24 to the best African player in Ligue 1 will be in new hands after the departure of the former Olympique de Marseille player from the French championship.

5. The Club World Cup, a new format with 32 teams, will be played from June 14 to July 13, 2025 with four African clubs involved (Al Ahly, Espérance de Tunis, Mamelodi Sundowns and Wac Casablanca). The inevitable Egyptian club Al Ahly, record holder of victories in the African Champions League (12) will be in the group of Palmeiras (Brazil), FC Porto (Portugal) and Inter Miami (United States).

6. The women's African Cup of Nations will be played in Morocco (July 5-26). Twelve teams will go after South Africa, which won its first title in 2022 in Morocco. This will be a great opportunity for the Atlas Lionesses to take revenge on the Banyana Banyana, who beat them in the final . Nigeria, with 11 titles out of 14 possible, will also try to become the ogre again after its failed in 2022.

7.One of the most anticipated events of the year will take place in October with the end of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in the African zone. We will know the nine African countries qualified (the tenth will have to go through a play-off) for the American World Cup, which will be played for the first time with 48 countries.

8.What if… Mohamed Salah became the second African player to win the 2025 Ballon d'Or next October? The Egyptian striker has been treading water with Liverpool since the start of the season at a time when his main competitors (Mbappé, Haaland, Vinicius) are struggling to keep up. It will probably take the Pharaoh two major titles, like the Premier League and the Champions League, for an entire continent to start dreaming of a successor to George Weah.

9.In any case, he missed the Ballon d'Or or not, Salah already has a strong chance of winning the title of African Player of the Year for a third time after 2017 and 2018, but we will certainly have to be wary of the Moroccan Achraf Hakimi a few days before the AFCON which will take place at home. At the same time, at the beginning of 2024, who would have bet on the coronation of the Nigerian Ademola Lookman ?

10.The apotheosis of the year 2025 for African football will be the CAN even if the final will be played on January 18…2026. In Morocco, the competition promises to be great with big contenders for the title. The Atlas Lions will want to do like Côte d'Ivoire and be crowned at home, 50 years after their first and only coronation. Senegal will be out for revenge after losing its title, DR Congo, ambitious with a great generation, and Algeria motivated by the idea of ​​winning the trophy on the land of its best enemy.

It's in a year, by then there will be plenty to do with a busy African football calendar for 2025...