How Senegal became genuine World Cup 2026 contenders – at a cost

Senegal coach Pape Thiaw cannot be accused of lacking ambition for the upcoming World Cup in North America. “If, even for a second, I doubted that I could win the World Cup with Senegal, then I would step aside,” he said after a match in March. Recommended Stories list of 4 items end of list The statement was remarkable on two counts. First, that an African team is openly declaring it can win the World Cup. Second, that it has not been ridiculed for saying so – which speaks volumes about the respect Senegal’s national team has earned from the footballing world. “Those were not just empty words. The players and the coach believe they can win the World Cup,” Babacar Diarra, a French-Senegalese freelance journalist, told Al Jazeera. “Although the first match [against France] will tell us a lot about how good this team truly is.” On the African continent, Senegal need not convince anyone of their quality. They are by far Africa’s most consistent national team, and a simple statistic backs that up: over the last decade, Senegal have either won every Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) they participated in or lost to the eventual champions. The only recent disappointments come in the World Cup, yet there are mitigating circumstances. In 2018, the West Africans were the first side in competition history to be eliminated by tie-breaking fair-play rules after accumulating too many bookings in the group stages. …