AFCON 2025: Big Boys Reclaim Their Place as West and North Africa Leave the Rest Behind

At the conclusion of the Round of 16 at AFCON 2023, Cameroon, Morocco, Senegal, Egypt and Algeria were all gone.

Meanwhile, Ivory Coast had just sneaked into the Round of 16 as the last third-best ranked team, although they made it all the way and won it, while Algeria did not even get out of their group.

The quarter-finals included Angola, South Africa, Mali, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, DR Congo and Guinea but at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, there have been no such shocks.

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All the big boys have reclaimed their place with hosts Morocco, holders Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon, Mali, Egypt and Senegal making it to the AFCON 2025 quarter-finals.

What is more, the gulf in class between North and West African countries has been evident at the tournament as the two regions have bossed proceedings so far.

Of the eight quarter-finalists, five are from West Africa while three are from the North with all sides remaining in the tournament loaded with European-based players.

Unlike last time out when a South African team, full of local-based players made it to the semi-final and finished third, star quality is paying dividends at the 2025 tournament where top players like Mohamed Salah (Egypt/Liverpool), Brahim Diaz (Morocco/Real Madrid), Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast/Manchester United), Victor Osimhen (Nigeria/Galatasaray), Lasine Sinayoko (Mali/Auxerre), Bryan Mbeumo (Cameroon/Manchester United) and Nicolas Jackson (Senegal/Bayern Munich) have driven their teams to the quarterfinal.

Heading into the Round of 16, East Africa had representation through Sudan and Tanzania, Southern Africa had South Africa and Mozambique while DR Congo flew the flag of Central Africa.

However, they are all now headed home as West and North African giants are left to square it out for Africa’s biggest football prize.

It means the traditional giants went back and regrouped after their shocks in 2023 and came back better prepared for AFCON 2025. The onus is on the other regions to up their game ahead of the 2027 tournament that will be staged in East Africa.