‘We are knocking on the door’: Africa’s 10 contenders target World Cup glory

With a record 10 African teams at the first 48-nation World Cup, the big question, after Morocco’s historic semi-final appearance in Qatar , is whether any of them can go a step further. The prospect of an African side becoming world champions appeared realistic after Cameroon defied the odds to beat Diego Maradona’s Argentina, the defending champions, in the opening game of the 1990 tournament and embarked on a fairytale run that ended in a 3-2 quarter-final defeat by England . But in the eight subsequent World Cups, African teams have been long on promise and short on delivery. Pelé, the sport’s all-time great, predicted: “An African nation will win the World Cup before the year 2000.” That we are still waiting is not down to of a lack of talent but a consequence of self-inflicted governance wounds, as Joseph-Antoine Bell, a goalkeeper in Cameroon’s 1982, 1990 and 1994 World Cups squads, bluntly puts it. “Our football is not really improving … we don’t challenge ourselves to be excellent,” says Bell, one of the continent’s most articulate football minds and a trenchant critic of Africa’s underperformance. “Before the 1960s, Africa already had good players in Europe, which means that we are not lacking players. …