AFCON 2021: Review Of Awards And Stats

The 2021 AFCON ended with a 3.65 goals per match ratio, and 190 goals scored in 52 matches played. Cameroon’s skipper, Vincent Aboubakar – got 8 goals but was one short of equaling Ndaye Mulumba’s 9-goals in a siingle tournament record of 1974.

Team of the tournament

Goalkeeper: Mendy
Defenders: Tapsoba, Abdelmoneim, Hakimi, Ciss

Midfeilders: El Neny, Blati Toure, Nampalys Mendy

Forwards: Aboubakar, Sallah, Mane

Bench: Onana, Collins, Kalidou Koulibaly, Mahmoud Hamdy, Ahmed Abo, Zambo Anguissa, Youssouf M’Changama, Bertrand Traore, Soufiane Boufal, Toko Ekambi, Famara Diedhiou

Tournament Winners: Senegal

Runners up: Egypt

Third place: Cameroon

Personal laureates;

Top scorer: Aboubakar Vincent

Best Young Player: Issa Kabore

Kabore was monumental in Burkina Faso’s AFCON journey. He registered 3 assists in his debut competition, and led his team to only their 3rd AFCON semis.

Best Manager: Aliou Cisse

8 years after he took over the helm of the Teranga Lions, Aliou won his country’s first AFCON as a manager. He was there as a player in 2002 and lost the final, and he equally lost the last edition to Algeria, before finally winning this time out.

Tournament MVP: Sadio Mane

Sadio Mane picked up the award with two goals and two assists, directly contributing to four of his team’s goals.

Best goalie: Edouard Mendy

Edouard Mendy recovered from Covid, after having missed two of Senegal’s games, to keep 3 clean sheets in 5 games, saving one penalty in the final.

Top 5 scorers
Vincent Aboubakar
8
Karl Toko-Ekambi
5
Gabadinho Mhango
3
Ibrahima Kone
3
Sadio Mane
3

Top Assists

Cameroon’s Fai Collins is equal top of the assist chart with Issa Kabore, while Traore and Mane hang in there with 2 each.

Collins Fai
3
Issa Kabore
3
Bertrand Traore
2
Martin Hongla
2
Sadio Mane
2

Most Yellow cards
Burkina Faso

The Stallions of Burkina Faso played like real warriors, and that got them a lot in the bad books of the referee. They had 16 yellows.

Burkina Faso
16
Gabon
13
Equatorial Guinea
12
Gambia
12
Senegal
12

Teams that got most Red cards

Cape Verde capitulated in their R16 game against Senegal, as they received 2 reds and ended the game with 9 players.

Cape Verde
2
Ghana
2

Teams who got most Penalties

Mali
3
Morocco
3
Tunisia
3
Cameroon
2
Senegal
2

Most Offsides

Burkina Faso
15
Gabon
13
Cameroon
11
Senegal
11
Algeria
10

In all, the 33rd edition of the AFCON was filled with a lot of action and drama was always nearby.