All good things must come to an end it seems, and the same goes for the AFCON 2023. On Sunday, 11th February, the captivating tournament came to an end with the host nation, Côte D’Ivoire, winning the cup.
The streets of Abidjan were filled with joy and excitement as Africa’s biggest football tournament kicked off. This tournament has been a rollercoaster of emotions, a barrage of goals and a goldmine of internet memes.
The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, delayed to January 2024, was played in the Ivory Coast from January 13 to February 11, featuring 24 of the continent’s premier men’s national teams.
The hosts, who had been without a head coach since the group stage, emerged victorious, with a 2-1 win over favourites Nigeria.
The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations – considered by many as the most exciting since its debut in 1957 – showcased an array of thrilling moments. Here are some of our favourites:
- Moroccan Sofyan Amrabat was red-carded twice against South Africa — firstly after two yellow cards then, following a VAR review, he was shown a straight red for a last-defender foul.
- Ronwen Williams, South Africa’s goalkeeper, broke Cape Verde’s hearts by saving four of their five kicks in a penalty shootout after a goalless quarter-final.
- The Mali Head Coach having a breakdown after their defeat against Ivory Coast in the final minutes of the match.
- Caught on camera: an Ivorian spectator trying to take the contact of a lady. The man, later identified as Anselme Santos, apologised to his wife and kids.
- South African attacker Mokoena scored a fantastic free kick goal against Morocco. A decisive goal which sealed the match for South Africa.
- Malian players trying to fight the referee after he blew his whistle. The referee defended himself against Hamari Traoré and his cohorts till he was led off the pitch.
- Ghanaian star midfielder, Mohammed Kudus totally speechless after the team bottled a 2 goal lead to lose in the last minutes of the game.
- The effective use of VAR at the AFCON ( A technology that has sparked controversies due to how it has been used in other competitions)
- Meme Creators: The presence of football Twitter on X FKA Twitter, one of the largest communities on social media fishing out memes from the tournament, it’s popular members defending AFCON against false articles made by mailsport claiming the competition misused VAR. (Tweet deleted)
- Iconic Celebrations, Six Managers Getting Sacked, 119 goals scored in 52 games, Puskas-level goal. Iconic face-off (SA v Nigeria) right after Grammy’s. Bragging Rights
