FIFA World Cup: Has Africa’s Golden Age Arrived?

By Joe Bartuah

The mere fact that 9 of the 32 elite national football teams from around the world that will be participating in the knockout round of the FIFA World Cup-2026 are from the Great Continent of Africa is a source of immense excitement, inspiration and celebration for millions of Africans on the continent and all others in the diaspora. The sheer number of African countries competing in the Round of 32 has caused many followers of FIFA World Cup to ask: Is this Africa’s football Golden Age?

The necessity and legitimacy of such question should arouse our curiosity, rather than being dismissively swept under the proverbial carpet, because our continental tabella titans are gallantly making soccer breakthroughs, in spite of manifest and latent challenges. Historically, Africa’s participation in the FIFA World Cup has been scanty. In fact, the continent was neither invited nor represented at the maiden World Cup games held in Uruguay in 1930. Of course, it’s not surprising, because at the time, European colonial powers were still busy in exploiting the human and mineral resources of the continent, without the consent of the aboriginal lords and ladies of the soil.

Four years later, Egypt represented Africa at the 1934 FIFA World Cup in Italy. As per the knockout rules at the time, Egypt played only one game and they were out, after being defeated by Hungary 4-2. Despite their defeat and early exit, the Pharaohs sparkled at that event, presaging Africa’s potential as their superstar at the time, Abdulrahman Fawzi netted a brace against the Hungarians.

Following that singular African representation, it took more than three decades before Morocco, another North African country appeared on the global football pedestal in 1970. In 1974, the erstwhile Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), then under the autocracy of General Mobutu Sese Sekou, became the first sub-Saharan African representative at the FIFA World Cup, but their dismal experience on the global stage, including a 9-0 trouncing by Josip  Broz Tito’s Yugoslavia, was an embarrassment. Of course, referee’s bias and unprofessionalism played a key role in Zaire’s humiliation. Africa, the second largest continent of planet Earth, currently with 1.6 billion living souls, did not have more than one representative in the FIFA World Cup until 1982, when Algeria and Cameroun represented Africa in Spain that year.

All along, I have insisted that if Africa is given a reasonably fair representation, our boys will surprise the global community. Remember that it was only eight years ago that FIFA reluctantly awarded Africa five slots during the quadrennial festival in Russia, and here we are in 2026, the original continent has a set of 10 soccer gladiators heroically representing the pride, dignity and determination of the Motherland. Even though Africa, a continent currently populated by 1.6 billion living souls has been chronically under-represented over the years, this time  around, we have sufficient reasons to cautiously wish for the best.

The initial onslaughts of our boys in the preliminary rounds are very encouraging, because of the 10 African representatives, a whopping nine countries have meritoriously advanced to the knockout stage. Can you believe that? In other words, 90 percent of the African teams have made it to the second round!

That’s what some of us have been saying all along; if you give Africa a fair chance, it will definitely prove its prowess and conspicuously display its manifest destiny. Of the 48 nations taking part in this year’s FIFA World Cup, 10 of them, or 21 percent of the total represent Africa, while Europe, a continent of 743 million people, is represented by at least 16 countries. From the British Isles, Scotland and England are part of the original 48, and so European countries constitute at least 33 percent of the global contingent. However, going into the knockout round, Africa has increased its percentage point to 28, because nine of the 32 remaining countries are from the original continent.

Now looming the question is, can Africa be a surprise package, or a sort of dark horse in the FIFA 2026 World Cup and prove the skeptics wrong? For me, this is not a farfetched dream, because our boys are showing that as far as international football is concerned, they have come of age and are already forging ahead with fortitude.

As we all commend and celebrate our football gladiators, let us also caution them against premature complacency. Instead, we should encourage them to keep their eyes on the covetous prize. They must all be mindful that even though the FIFA World Cup was designed by an Italian artist, yet it’s most likely that its pure gold content is originally from resource-rich Africa, because solid gold is one of the primary minerals of the original continent. It goes without saying that the solid FIFA World Cup needs to return to Africa, the continent of its nativity and our gallant gladiators must go for it.