fbpx

By The Numbers: The Top Flight Leagues Represented At The 2015 AFCON

By The Numbers: The Top Flight Leagues Represented At The 2015 AFCON

The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations is under way in Equatorial Guinea, with the host nation having welcomed sides from all over the continent for three weeks of top football to decide the best national team in Africa.

With all of the excitement at the tournament, and teams from all over the continent vying for the title of African champion, it is easy to forget that leagues around the world continue due to the timing of the competition at the beginning of the year (January/February) which is mid-season for many national championships, especially in Europe and parts of Africa.

Many of these leagues have been depleted somewhat by players being called up for national duty at this Nations Cup, and AFKSport takes a closer look at the specific top flight championships that are best represented at the 2015 showpiece.

With 368 players picked to take part in the Afcon on behalf of 16 national teams, there are certainly many divisions that have been robbed of African talent during the last few weeks. This piece does not focus on leagues below the top flight in any country, though there are a fair amount of players taking part who are involved in Ligue 2 and below in France or the Segunda Division in Spain, not to mention the English Championship and League one.

Ligue 1 Domination

It would not take an expert to determine the league that is most affected by this competition at the moment, and an educated guess would point one in the direction of France.

There are 53 players from the French Ligue 1 who have been fighting for their countries in Equatorial Guinea, meaning that the top clubs in France have been hardest hit be absenteeism during the course of the African flagship competition. The likes of Marseille’s Andre Ayew for Ghana and the Ivorian Serge Aurier of Paris Saint Germain have been missed by devotees of Ligue 1.

In Africa, the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) is the local competition with the most representation at this year’s Afcon, with a total of 23 footballers plying their trade in the rainbow nation, making the SA top flight the second most represented division at the tournament.

Eighteen of the PSL players formed part of the South African national team squad that was knocked out in the group stages, with Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba preferring to have a strong local base in his team, complimented by a select few European based stars. The other five PSL representatives came from Zambia and Ghana.

A closer look at the African domestic scene establishes the fact that Tunisia’s Ligue 1 is the second most represented league on the continent with 15 players, and interestingly, the Democratic Republic of Congo is in third spot, with the Linafoot able to claim 12 footballers at the competition.

Yaya and the EPL contingent

Ivory Coast’s Yaya Toure is the most recognisable player at the tournament following his fourth consecutive CAF African Player of the Year nod, and he leads the group of 14 players in total who have been missing from the English Premier League, with Manchester City feeling the influential midfielder’s absence.

Others who have not taken part in Premier League action for their clubs in the past few weeks include Newcastle’s Senegalese striker Papiss Cisse and Everton’s Ghanaian talent, Christian Atsu.

Following France’s dominance at the Afcon and a solid selection of English Premier League players, the mantle for the third and fourth most represented divisions in Europe has been occupied by the Spanish La Liga and Italy’s Serie A with 10 and nine players respectively.

Players such as Sevilla’s Stephane Mbia for Cameroon and Algeria’s Valencia starlet Sofiane Feghouli can be counted amongst the Spanish based contingent who have been in Equatorial Guinea. It is also worth mentioning that Cameroon players Frank Bagnack and Fabrice Ondoa are owned by Barcelona, but until now have only represented the B team, and as such they are not considered La Liga players.

Calcio has been feeling the absence of Ivorian talisman Gervinho, who has been a revelation at Roma, while Emmanuel Badu of Udinese is serving Ghana with pride in the central African country.

Gabon’s Pierre Emerick Aubemayang represented the German Bundesliga at this year’s Nations Cup, along with Ivorian Salomon Kalou of Hertha Berlin. This talented duo is among the seven players who call Germany home.

The remainder of the players are spread throughout a number of leagues in both Europe and Africa, with stars such as Tunisia’s Yassine Chikhaoui playing for Zurich in Switzerland, and Algerian sensation Yacine Brahimi of Porto in Portugal amongst the long list of foreign based footballers coming from a variety of leagues.

Some of the other countries that have been affected in Europe include Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Romania, Belgium, Turkey and Russia. A sum of 110 players who have been at the tournament come from the various African top flight divisions, including Zambia, Algeria, Ghana, Mali, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Angola, Egypt, Morocco and Sudan, amongst others.

It is interesting to note that Senegal and Cape Verde are the only teams out of the 16 without players from their own leagues, as all of their players are based in other countries.

Flavours from around the world

Not all of the players at the Afcon are currently playing within European or African leagues, however, as Zambia defender Stoppila Sunzu, for example, makes his money playing for Shanghai Shenhua in China, along with eight other players who travelled from their Asian and Middle Eastern clubs. United Arab Emirates-based Asamoah Gyan is Ghana captain, and is part of a growing trend of African players furthering their careers in the Middle East.

Finally, a handful of players who took part in the Afcon are based in North America, with Cape Verde’s Jorge Semedo playing in Mexico, while talented Algerian and Philadelphia number one Rais Adi Mbolhi is amongst the few players taking part in Major League Soccer (MLS).