The Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Thursday named the group stage best XI of the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Ivory Coast but has no Nigerian player included.
Even the reigning African footballer of the year, Victor Osimhen, who had a great 2023 in the colours of Napoli and the Super Eagles failed to make the list and it is not surprising at all.
Osimhen, who was the Man of the Match in the Super Eagles 1-0 win over AFCON 2023 host nation, Cote d’Ivoire has scored just one goal in three matches but has been disappointing.
The 25-year-old who scored 31 goals in 39 matches across all competitions for Napoli last season and netted ten times in the AFCON 2023 qualifiers has wasted clear-cut chances in Ivory Coast.
Meanwhile, the group stage best XI of the 2023 AFCON is dominated by Morocco and Senegal. Morocco has four players, Senegal has three, Equatorial Guinea has two while DR Congo and Angola have one each.
Equatorial Guinea’s Jesus Owono prevented the most goals and is unsurprisingly the goalkeeper of the AFCON 2023 group stage best XI especially after his country finished as leaders of Group A.
Achraf Hakimi who has been a consistent member of Morocco’s starting line-up in the three games where he saw 279 minutes of action holds down the right-back position. He made 147 successful passes resulting in an 88% pass completion rate.
The Paris Saint-Germain player despite being a defender created nine chances which happened to be the most by anyone in the group stages and he contributed one assist as well as a goal.
Kalidou Koulibaly, the winning captain of Senegal’s team in 2021, is one of two central defenders with the other being Nayef Aguerd of Morocco while Arthur Masuaku of DR Congo occupies the left-back position.
The three midfielders in the 4-3-3 formation are Morocco’s Sofyan Amrabat and Azzedine Ounahi with Senegal’s Lamine Camara making up the three-man selection.
In the attack are Angola winger, Gelson Dala, Equatorial Guinea striker, Emilio Nsue who is the current AFCON 2023 leading scorer with five goals and forward, Ismaila Sarr of Senegal.
