When we were kings - Recalling African football's most dominant teams and how the AFCON 2025 semi-finalists can join the list

Every now and then, a national men's football team emerges on the international scene that sweeps (nearly) everything in sight: think the 1958/70 Brazil team, West Germany of the 1970s, Spain's 2008/12 cohort or, more recently, the Argentina side that has won the last two Copa America titles either side of FIFA World Cup glory.

Africa, over the decades, has had its fair share of those, too. And with just four games to the end of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Morocco, it's a good time to recall the exploits of those utterly fearsome sides.

Ghana (1963 - 1970)

The Black Stars first played at the AFCON in 1963, when they hosted the competition. That team, led by the legendary coach Charles Kumi Gyamfi, went all the way to the final, securing an emphatic 3-0 victory over Sudan.

It would prove no fluke, though, as Ghana went on to reach the final of the tournament's next three editions — no team has yet matched that succession of four straight final appearances — winning one.

Throw in a maiden Olympic appearance at Rome 1964, where Ghana's global debut ended in a creditable quarter-final finish, and that was quite a memorable run for the Stars, undoubtedly Africa's strongest side of the sixties.

Nigeria (1994 - 1996)

Africa's first ‘super-team’? Possibly, for Nigeria were absolutely dominant, on the continent and abroad, as no African team had previously been, taking on all comers in style.

Transitions are supposed to be painful and marked by patience, but Nigeria's in the early to mid-nineties was both fairly seamless and highly successful.

The Stephen Keshi generation signed off with victory at AFCON 1994 and a statement World Cup bow later that year, with the help of Nwankwo Kanu, Jay-Jay Okocha, and friends, many of whom would then carry the torch forward to light up the Atlanta 1996 Olympics two years later, overpowering the might of Brazil and Argentina to bring home Africa's first football gold.

Cameroon (2000 - 2002)

Nigeria's aforementioned purple patch came to a halt with defeat at home in the 2000 AFCON final to neighbours Cameroon.

We didn't know it then, but that game would prove a passing-of-the-baton moment; just as the vanquished Eagles of Nigeria were exiting the heights of glory, Cameroon's victorious Lions were making their grand entry.

And they stayed there awhile, matching Nigeria's Olympic gold triumph later that year in Sydney, before winning the AFCON again in 2002, with the likes of Rigobert Song, Samuel Eto'o, and Patrick Mboma in full swing.

A run to the FIFA Confederation Cup final in 2003, losing narrowly to France on the day their midfield star Marc-Vivien Foé tragically died, ended a period that had produced quite a highlight reel of brilliance.

Egypt (2006 - 2010)

No team had ever won the AFCON three times in a row until Hassan Shehata's all-conquering Egypt side.

Starting their winning streak — which ended up taking their overall title count to a still unequalled seven — at home in the 2006 edition, they won the title again in Ghana two years later and finally signed off with a third at Angola 2010.

The Pharaohs failed to qualify for the next three tournaments, incredibly, but the ruthless manner in which they rounded up the entire continent while they held sway was anything but unconvincing: 15 wins and zero losses across those 18 games.

With a semi-final to come against Senegal at Morocco 2025 on Wednesday, could Mohamed Salah-inspired Egypt go on to claim that elusive eighth title and lay the foundations for another relentless winning dynasty?

Or would that opportunity fall instead to their opponents, Senegal, or to either of the other semi-finalists, Nigeria and Morocco? Fans of all four teams go into the semis hopeful that this AFCON will be the catalyst for their own period of dominance on the African continent.

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