African Cup of Nations Winners
The CAF African Cup of Nations is the most prestigious football tournament in the whole African continent. Hosted by FIFA’s division in Africa; the Community of African Football- CAF.
The competition is held at 2 years intervals and over the years, the format of the competition has witnessed several changes, from being contested by only 3 teams in 1957 when it was just starting off, to the most recent improvement to a total of 24 contesting teams in 2019, playing in sets of qualifying rounds.
African Cup of Nations or AFCON as it is fondly called first started in 1957, in Sudan where Egypt emerged as the first ever winner after defeating Ethiopia, bagging the trophy named after CAF’s first president Abdel Azeez Abdallah Salem, who was also Egyptian.
The trophy was later permanently awarded to Ghana in 1978 after their third consecutive win becoming the first to do so in the competition’s history. Then the African unity Cup was used but later awarded to Cameroon in 2000 for their third success in the competition.
AFCON has always been more than a competition for Africans, it has become a culture and an open ground for young and local talents to show themselves at the highest football stage to European agents, talent scouts, and journalists.
The competition has also been a conduit for political and social articulation. And soon many African leaders started to invest considerable political and economic capital into the football competition to help eradicate diversity and build unity in strength amongst the African nations after the effect of colonization on the continent.
This has greatly helped the African tournaments by providing young talents now considered amongst the best players in the world like Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba. Showing just how much change football can bring. Here is a list of the Winners of the African Cup of Nations From 1957 to date.
Year | Winners | Runner-Up |
1957 | Egypt | Ethiopia |
1959 | Egypt | Sudan |
1961 | Ethiopia | Egypt |
1963 | Ghana | Sudan |
1965 | Ghana | Ethiopia |
1968 | Congo(Kinshasa) | Ghana |
1970 | Sudan | Ghana |
1972 | Congo (Brazzaville) | Mali |
1974 | Zaire | Zambia |
1975 | Morocco | Guinea |
1977 | Ghana | Uganda |
1980 | Nigeria | Algeria |
1982 | Ghana | Libya |
1984 | Cameroon | Nigeria |
1986 | Egypt | Morocco |
1988 | Cameroon | Nigeria |
1990 | Algeria | Nigeria |
1992 | Côte d’Ivoire | Ghana |
1994 | Nigeria | Zambia |
1996 | South Africa | Tunisia |
1998 | Egypt | South Africa |
2000 | Cameroon | Nigeria |
2002 | Cameroon | Senegal |
2004 | Tunisia | Morocco |
2006 | Egypt | Côte d’Ivoire |
2008 | Egypt | Cameroon |
2010 | Egypt | Ghana |
2012 | Zambia | Côte d’Ivoire |
2013 | Nigeria | Burkina Faso |
2015 | Côte d’Ivoire | Ghana |
2017 | Cameroon | Egypt |
2019 | Algeria | Senegal |
2021 | Senegal | Egypt |
The 2021 AFCON couldn’t be held because of the effect of the 2020 Pandemic of COVID-19, so it was moved to be played in 2022-but was still called AFCON 2021-where Senegal took home the trophy after beating Egypt in the finals by 1 goals to none.
The most successful Club in AFCON is Egypt, having won the trophy a total of 6 times and reaching the finals 8 times.