With the winners of the past two Africa Cup of Nations having arguably their best crop of players ever heading into those tournaments, a compelling argument can be made that a participating nation needs to have a golden generation in order to win the competition.
Those two AFCONs were won by Algeria in 2019 and Senegal in 2021, although the latter edition was only hosted last year due to its postponement because of COVID-19. With the group-stage draw having been completed last week, all teams now know their opponents for the first round, and Morocco have been tipped as one of the early favourites to clinch the trophy. The Atlas Lions are currently the top-ranked CAF nation, while FIFA also ranks them as the 13th best national team on the planet following a historic fourth-place finish at the 2022 FIFA World Cup – the highest finish by an African side at the prestigious tournament.
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