The African Nations Championship final between Senegal and Algeria takes place at the Stade Nelson Mandela in Algiers on Saturday with 40,000 people expected to attend.
Both nations are hoping to lift the trophy for the first time in a competition dedicated to players based in their own domestic leagues.
The Teranga Lions appeared in the semi-finals of the first edition of CHAN in 2009. In continental clubs competitions, their last appearance in semi-finals was in the 2004 CAF Champions League when Jeanne d’Arc de Dakar failed against the Tunisians of Etoile du Sahel.
It’s fair to say most of the recent success of Senegalese football came from players based outside of the land.
“Almost no one was expecting the team to go far in this CHAN”, Youssouph Dabo, head coach of the Senegalese club ASC Jaraaf, said.
“There were a lot of critics of Senegalese football and its league, and this final is proof that clubs are doing great work.”
In reality, local clubs are suffering from their own success.
“Our country exports too many players”, the Senegalese technical director Mayacine Mar said.
One local player at the last AFCON
Last year when Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Cameroon, only one of the 28 players in the squad was based in the local league. It was Alioune Badara Faty, the fourth-choice goalkeeper, who plays for defending champions, Casa Sports.
This trophy was the climax for a generation of players, that participated in Africa’s main football tournament for the last four editions.
But when it comes to CHAN, the country has missed four tournaments in a row since 2011, losing on three occasions to Guinea in the qualifying phase.
The turnover caused by players’ moving abroad has always been a blow for the coaches.
“There was a lack of stability because the team was changing a lot between qualifying games”, Youssouph Dabo remembers.
This time, the Senegalese FA made sure the head coach Pape Thiaw, would be given enough time to build a squad with a large pool of players.
“We knew the day we would be able to line up the best team possible we would go through”, Mayacine Mar said.
“The same team that faced Liberia in the first qualifying round played against Guinea in both legs of the last round.”
“Then, we lost six players prior to the tournament in Algeria.”
Part of the preparations before and after qualification, included the local Senegalese players playing several friendly matches and at tournaments like the Cosafa Cup, a competition involving Southern Africa countries, where they finished third last July.
Could we see this success transfer to clubs?
Since 2008, none of the Senegalese’ first division champions have been able to maintain its title.
This era has seen the growth of two academies in the first division, Diambars and Generation Foot, known for the development of players involved in the main leagues in Europe like Sadio Mané or Idrissa Gana Gueye, but also winners of three championships in the last decade.
But Mayacine Mar underlines that “currently, we have good players everywhere in academies as well as in traditional clubs”.
For him, it’s the result of a strategy.
“It’s true our elite is diluted between our two professional leagues, but we consider it’s not a good thing to have one or two teams dominating the league for a decade as we can see in Uganda, DR Congo or Egypt”, Mar explained.
In Senegal, people are returning to stadiums to follow their own clubs after years of disinterest.
The recent sponsorships of the professional leagues participated in this, but the technical director feels there is still work to do.
“Today, our issue is when it comes to funding the clubs”, Mayacine Mar said.
“It’s the reason why we are unable to keep our players for more than one year or two.”
Eight Senegalese clubs were represented in Senegal’s CHAN squad this year and the story of players leaving could repeat itself.
Coach Dabo knows he could lose two players at his current club ASC Jaraaf who are involved in the tournament, defender Mélo Ndiaye and midfielder Moussa Ndiaye.
“I will never stop my players if they have ambitions for their own career, I wish them the best”, he says.
“We are all proud of them and if there is demand around them, I will not close the door.”
