Mo Salah: Of course, I want to win AFCON!

By Mazola Molefe
22nd January 2024

Egypt captain and Liverpool attacker Mohammed Salah has spoken highly of the level of the games at AFCON, a competition his national side have battled to win despite usually being mentioned among the favourites.

The Pharaohs face Cape Verde in their final group match tonight needing a victory at all cost, while expected to be without their star player Salah after the Egyptian FA confirmed he’d miss two matches due to a hamstring injury.

It makes it more tougher for coach Rui Vitoria to seal qualification to the next round, with Salah arguing the fixtures have been hard to predict and also used Morocco’s fourth place finish at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as an example to support his comments.

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"Players play in the big level so I think African football is improving a lot and you can see also in the World Cup, we went so far with Morocco and all Africa [Africans] were behind them. So, I think it's improving a lot," Salah said.

Egypt’s chances of staying in the tournament now hinge on a win over Cape Verde in Abidjan – unthinkable for some given Salah and his teammates were runners up in the previous edition after losing to Senegal on penalties.

Salah, whose club accolades include a Premier League and UEFA Champions League title, desperately wants to add the AFCON.

"I would love to win it [AFCON], absolutely I would love to win it. I just said I want everything possible but this one still not yet, it will happen somehow that's what I believe. Whatever I believe, I achieve, so it will happen. Sooner or later, it will happen," Salah added.

Cape Verde are already guaranteed top spot in Group B, and for them the clash against The Pharaohs is a dead rubber in theory.

They will, however, relish taking the big scalp of their North African counterparts, a factor Salah recognises.

"I think everybody knows what it means to players to win the Africa Cup. We are always proud to wear that T-shirt and we were unlucky, the last one, a bit unlucky. I think the players are very motivated to win the tournament. We all wanna win it, it will be such a great feeling. At the end of the day, we are not doing great at the moment but we are a fantastic team, we have a great coach."