Mané and Salah back together again, predictions come true

An African nation will win the World Cup before the year 2000," declared Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pele, in 1977. An ambitious oracle, given Zaire's disastrous performance at the 1974 World Cup in Germany. The Central Africans were thrashed 9-0 by the now defunct Yugoslavia. It is now more than two decades since O Rei's dire prediction won out, and things did not look much better for this edition of Qatar, although some specialists place Senegal among the favourites. Or they did: the absence of their best player, Sadio Mané, is a major setback for the Senegalese.

At Korea/Japan 2002, Senegal matched Roger Milla's Cameroon's surprise qualification for the quarter-finals at Italy 1990. That, the quarter-final, remains the best record for an African team at a World Cup. It was also achieved by Ghana at South Africa 2010, a date for which Pelé had extended his prediction. In fact, it could be argued that the performance of Black Continent teams at the World Cup has deteriorated in recent times. Russia 2018, in fact, was the first tournament since 1982 in which no team managed to reach even the round of 16.

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At the Spain 1982 and Mexico 1986 World Cups, one in four of the participating African teams had reached at least the Round of 16. The statistic rose to 33 per cent, one in three, between Italy 90, USA 94 and France 98. With the turn of the millennium, after Pele's bold prediction expired, that percentage has dropped even lower than 25 per cent.

African teams have won an average of three group matches in every tournament since 1998. That win rate, which was 20 per cent, dropped to 16.6 at South Africa 2010, with six representatives, including the hosts.

<strong>Pele thought an African would be World Cup winner</strong>

In addition to the notable absence for Senegal of Sadio Mané, second only to Karim Benzema in the race for the 2022 Ballon d'Or, Qatar will also be missing a former Liverpool team-mate who in recent times has consistently challenged him for the African Ballon d'Or, Mohamed Salah. Egypt failed to qualify for this World Cup and without Salah and Sadio, Edson Arantes do Nascimento's now obsolete prediction seems to have an even tougher time of it.