Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso has complained about the timing of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
Die Werkself are set to be without five key players during the competition which will start in Cote d’Ivoire in January 2024.
Forward Victor Boniface is expected to be part of Nigeria’s squad to the competition.
Former Southampton midfielder Nathan Tella could also be part of the party.
Tella has been handed a maiden invitation to the Super Eagles for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
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Moroccan forward Amine Adli, Burkina Faso centre-back Edmond Tapsoba, and Ivorian defender Odilon Kossounou are the other players Leverkusen could miss during the AFCON finals.
Alonso admitted that his side must deal with the situation.
“It is a concern for January and February, perhaps not having five players. It is a reality. We have to accept that,” Alonso told Transfermarkt.
The 2023 AFCON finals will run from January 13 to February 11, 2024.
The Terangha Lions of Senegal are the defending champions of the competition.
5 Comments
When will Europeans know that June/July is rainy Season in a greater majority of African States? Once every two years you lose players for just 4weeks and that’s too much?
Hi Jimmy,
We are not addressing the elephant in the room here. Did you follow the Under 20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica last summer? I did.
It not only rained cats and dogs, even dinosaurs fell out of the skies for good measure particularly in Nigeria’s opening game.
Yet Costa Rica were ready with the right infrastructure to ride the tempests and navigate the tournament successfully.
That is Costa Rica, not USA or Germany.
When can we in Africa construct effective infrastructures to overcome such seasonal challenges?
@deo… Great input as always. We know as Africans we cannot continue to hide behind our inadequacies. However, our country administrators are not interested in building real infrastructures and rather focus on frivolities. Other climes take football as real business, but in mostly subsaharan Africa… football is taken like pasttime fun. Waiting for real infrastructure upgrade may not never be in our life time seeing how most African States have degenerated with collapse of few good pre-existing ones. Take Nigeria, we don’t even have up to two standard tournament-ready stadia… I agree with you @deo.
Hahahaha Deo….Infact you took that response straight off my mind. Your reference to Costa Rica was apt…! Touche…!
In year 2023, africans are still using “rainy season” as an excuse to hold AFCON in January, and we are not even ashamed to say it.
CONMEBOL which shares similar latitude, geography, Climate and Economy with Africa hosts COPA America in June.
AFC hosts the Asian Cup in June
These are two regions who experience far more tempestous rainfalls and monsoons than Africa.
Only Africa and their backwardness move their AFCON around like fulani herdsmen.
When big clubs shy away from buying African players or when African players lose their first team positions because of these avoidable absences, same africans will open their mouths wide to allege racism….LMAoo
Its bad enough that we struggle to hold it in the designated years 2021 AFCON held in 2022, 2023 AFCON being held in 2024…….now, its the flimsy excuse of rainy season.
What sense is in building/refurbishing a stadium for hundreds of millions of dollars yet not fitting it with a pitch that can drain itself. That’s what we still do in Africa in 2023, when a standard self draining lush green grass pitch goes for as little as about a million euros to two.
If not for FIFA taking the bull by the horn and banning substandard playing arenas from hosting its matches, I am very sure CAF would have continued allowing grazing fields and burial grounds to host qualifying matches across the continent.
Its very simple, if you cant provide the necessary quality and quantity of facilities needed, you shouldnt get the hosting rights….its that simple. If the requirements are too much for you to handle alone, get a partner to share a joint bid with.
We want the rest of the world to take us seriously yet we keep making up excuses for why we should remain silly, lazy and unitelligent. And then at the slightest infraction we allege racism…..LMAOo
Hmm…words of wisdom!!! Spot on