Former Elephant of Cote d’Ivoire midfielder Yaya Toure has ignored Nigeria’s Super Eagles and has picked The Djurtus of Guinea Bissau, Atlas Lions of Morocco and Teranga Lions of Senegal as the tournament favorites
Côte d’Ivoire will stage next year’s tournament which will run from January 13 to February 11, 2024.
This is the second time they will host the tournament after first staging it in 1984.
The assistant coach of the Saudi Arabia national team Looking forward to next year’s edition Toure, who captained his country to win the AFCON in 2015, made a shock list of the countries he feels are favourites.
Surprisingly, he left out former winners like Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia.
Among favourites he listed are South Africa, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco and reigning champions Senegal.
Côte d’Ivoire were champions in 1992 and 2015, South Africa win as hosts in 1996, Morocco’s only success was in 1976 while Senegal claimed their first-ever title at the 2021 edition in Cameroon.
Toure based his prediction on the performance of the team during the qualifier and believes that can propel them to win the trophy.
“It is normal to have a preference for your own country. Ivory Coast has a strong team and many talented and experienced players.
But if I had to choose teams that I think are favourites, I would say Senegal, Morocco, Guinea-Bissau, and South Africa.
Their performance during qualifying was impressive”, he said
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