All African teams with African coaches

Walid Regragoui succeeds Vahid Halihodzic as coach of Morocco. Regragoui is the coach of reigning CAF Champions League winner Wydad Casablanca. He also won the national championship title with Wydad.

And with this coaching change at the Moroccan national team, there is now an absolute, remarkable novelty for teams from Africa. For the first time ever, all participating African teams will be coached by a coach from their own country.
At the beginning of the World Cup qualifiers, things looked very different. Morocco had a coach from Bosnia, Cameroon was coached by a Portuguese, and Ghana by a Serb. At the World Cup, however, this situation changes.

Aliou Cissé is the coach of the year

Senegal’s longest-serving coach is Aliou Cissé, who has been with the Lions from Teranga since 2015. That consistency in the coaching ranks has now paid off. Under Cissé, Senegal last won the African Championship. He has managed to shape the team over the years and give it a system of play that is recognised and mastered by all.

In contrast, all the other coaches of the African World Cup participants are relatively new to the business and were not appointed until 2022. Tunisian Jalel Kadri came on board after Tunisia’s disappointing performance at the Africa Cup, as did Rigobert Song for Cameroon and Otto Addo for Ghana.

This is a great sign for African football. It proves the excellent development that has also taken place in the areas of logistics and education. To this end, in 2018, the African Football Confederation (CAF) introduced a new education programme that allows one to obtain the Pro Licence, which is recognised in all leagues in the world. To be eligible for the licence at all, one must already have a certain level of performance and experience beforehand.

Addo was born in Germany, Regragui in France

The only thing that could be improved with regard to the 2026 World Cup is that all coaches would then be born in their home country as well. It is true that all current coaches were also national players. But Walid Regraoui was born and trained in France, Otto Addo in Germany.

Nevertheless: A great success for Africa!