Which of the continent’s all-time greats never graced the grandest stage of all?
KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty ImagesMohamed Aboutrika
Aboutrika’s intense loyalty to Al-Ahly during his club career means he never got to test himself in the European arena, but his failure to make the World Cup is a more baffling failure.
The playmaker was a key figure in the Pharaohs side that won three Africa Cup of Nations titles in a row between 2006 and 2010, but several successive failures in World Cup qualification means that that great side never got to represent the continent at the grandest stage.
Aboutrika was present for the heart-breaking defeat by Algeria in the playoff of 2009, and was part of the side crushed by Ghana four years later.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesAbedi Pele
Ghana great who was a Champions League winner with Olympique de Marseille and, for a time, could be considered among the most scintillating players in the European game.
However, while the three-time African Footballer of the Year and three-time Ligue 1 champion won the Africa Cup of Nations as a youngster in 1982, Ghana never reached the World Cup during his career.
GettyKalusha Bwalya
Zambia’s greatest player, Bwalya is the Chipolopolo’s all-time top scorer and their most capped international.
He reached a Nations Cup final in 1994, and may well have reached the World Cup that year had his teammates not perished in a tragic plane crash off the coast of Gabon.
WikipediaGodfrey Chitalu
Chitalu, who died in that aforementioned air disaster of 1993, is Africa’s most prolific international footballer of all time, having struck 79 goals in 108 games for Zambia.
Quite remarkably for a player of his sensational goalscoring qualities, he spent the entirety of his 18-year career in his homeland, having represented Kitwe United and then Kabwe Warriors for long spells.