With the CAN U20 conquered this Saturday, March 11 by the Cubs, Senegal continues its unprecedented raid in Africa with four trophies in one year. Next challenges, the CAN U 17 in April and the CAN U23 in November...

Football: four trophies in one year, where will Senegalese football stop?

The Senegal under-20 team, African champions.

(Drawing).

Text by: Ndiasse Sambe Follow

4 mins

With the CAN U20 conquered this Saturday, March 11 by the Cubs, Senegal continues its unprecedented raid in Africa with four trophies in one year.

Next challenges, CAN U 17 in April and CAN U23 next November.

A shot on goal finally winning and all the floodgates that open.

By transforming his penalty during the series of shots on goal in

the CAN 2022 final,

Sadio Mané was certainly far from suspecting that this earthquake on Senegalese football was going to be followed by beautiful aftershocks.

Team A broke the lock by winning the most coveted trophy in African football and boosted a dynamic that continues to carry Senegal to the highest peaks of football on the continent.

If, last September,

the victory of the selection of the Lions at the CAN

of beach soccer was "natural", with the stranglehold of the men of Mamadou Diallo on this competition (7 trophies in 11 editions), the successes at CHAN and at the CAN U20 were far from certain.

And it is obvious that the victory at the CAN has changed the mentality of the Senegalese players who are no longer content to go "

as far as possible

" but to go "

to seek the cup

The Idrissa Gana Guèye symbol

Senegal had only one semi-final, lost, to their name before CHAN 2023. And yet, the local Lions managed

the feat of winning against Algeria

in front of the Greens public.

Last Saturday, the Cubs, who had lost three finals in the last four editions of the CAN U23, won

their first trophy

without ever shaking during the competition, with in particular no goal conceded.

The latest addition to the family 🏆 #TotalEnergiesAFCONU17 🔜 ❓ https://t.co/PVljLTN4gt pic.twitter.com/4Tj6eaaRbx

— #TotalEnergiesAFCONU20 (@CAF_Online) March 12, 2023

Senegal knows the recipe for success and these latest performances reward a sports policy, among young people, initiated more than 15 years ago.

You can't be good at high-level football if you don't sow the right seed, if you don't let it grow and germinate,

" recalls Mbaye Diouf Dia, current vice-president of the Senegalese Football Federation.

The leader, joined by RFI, was one of the main players in the "revolution" of Senegalese football with work that bore fruit during the years he headed the Commission in charge of youth football.

“

The symbol of the success of this policy, which was launched in 2007 after a serious crisis in Senegalese football, the national championship of which was suspended for two years, is Idrissa Gana Guèye (note: ex-PSG player, today at Everton).
He was the captain of the junior team which qualified for its first CAN, he was part of the first Senegalese team at the Olympic Games (London 2012), and he is also the first to be African champion

. .

Lion cubs fed in training centers like

Diambars

Génération Foot

, and by coaches who benefit from enormous means to train and prepare well for their competition.

Proof of the good health of local expertise: all the trophies were won by Senegalese coaches,

Aliou Cissé (CAN)

, Mamadou Diallo (beach soccer),

Pape Thiaw (CHAN)

, and Malick Daf (U20)

Hopes reinforced by internationals

Today, Senegal does not intend to stop in such a good way and already has in sight the CAN U17, from April 29 to May 19, 2023 in Algeria, and the CAN U23, from November 02 to 26, 2023 in Morocco. .

The Under-17s have only appeared in two African Cups and have never made it past the first round.

However, in Algeria, they will aim for the coronation, carried by the breath of their elder winners.

For the U23, it will first be necessary to get rid of Mali during the last qualifying round on March 24 in Dakar and on March 28 in Bamako.

For this decisive meeting, the Hopes could even register the reinforcements of internationals like

Pape Matar Sarr

(Tottenham), Ismail Jakobs (AS Monaco) or Formose Mendy (Amiens).

The qualification for this CAN, which leads to the Olympic Games in Paris, in the event of a place on the podium, is one of the priorities of the Senegalese Football Federation.

For these next games, "

Senegal is hyper-armed, quite equipped

," said Mbaye Diouf Dia, with a voice that exudes serenity.

There won't be many people to contradict him at the pace at which Senegalese football is going in Africa.

Football: four trophies in one year, where will Senegalese football stop?

Football: four trophies in one year, where will Senegalese football stop?

The Idrissa Gana Guèye symbol

Hopes reinforced by internationals

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