Africa has provided us with some great teams in the latest World Cups. Names like Nigeria, Cameroon were not to be taken lightly in the last years. Senegal provided the biggest surprise ever by taking the world champions France out of the race in 2002.

Well, surprise, surprise, none of these teams will be present at the World Cup 2006, in Germany. Having great players like Eto’o, El-Hadji Diouf or Nonda in their teams didn’t help at all and new names will be now rising: Drogba or Adebayor, just to name the most known, helped their teams, Ivory Coast and Togo, to reach the finals in Germany for the first time ever.

What happened?

Ageing teams, ill-conceived preparatory programmes and temperamental, slightly complacent players are just a few explanations and are equally applicable to Cameroon, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa. So have we just turned the page on a new chapter in African football history?

It remains to be seen. Next year, we might witness history.

Source: noticias.info