Recent years have seen the Premier League decorated with some of the finest players from the African continent who have contributed to the physicality and attractiveness of the game.
This year the African Cup of Nations will run from 17th January to 8th February 2015, which will mean the players selected for their country could miss up to five games for their club. The impact of some of these players has been instrumental to the development of their clubs in recent months and as much as they will be pushing for victory in Equatorial Guinea. I have no doubt their league teams will be standing by their gates, anticipating their return.
Let’s start with honourable mentions to the teams that didn’t make the cut to detriment of their nation (but relief to some Premier League managers):
Reigning champions Nigeria surprisingly failed to even make the efforts needed to grant them the opportunity to defend their cup, but Mourinho will be relived that John Obi Mikel will remain at the club as a reliable substitute.
West Brom will also be relived that Benin once again didn’t feature and Stephane Sessegnon remains available as they fight off relegation with 18 points and 17th position, as well as Mulumbu’s Congo who failed to qualify. More honourable mentions include Saints’ Kenyan powerhouse Victor Wanyama, and Assaidi (Stoke), Marouane Chamakh (Crystal Palace) and Adel Taarabt (QPR) who would represent Morocco had they qualified.
What an important player Yaya Toure is for club and country; his commanding presence is always missed. With seven goals in 10 appearances from the midfield position, Toure has produced many game changing performances for Manchester City. Players such as Lampard, Fernando and Silva will be needed more than ever in order to fill the huge void left by Toure as the Ivorian powerhouse recently recorded his fourth consecutive African Player of the Year Award with another strong performance last year.
Upcoming matches against title-rivals Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton could prove critical to Manchester City’s Premier League defence, and for their sake, the Ivory Coast’s failure could prove a blessing.
Newcastle vice-captain Chieck Tiote has definitely left his mark on the Premier League, and he’s probably left a few marks on players too – averaging one yellow every two games. Nevertheless, along with Colback and Sissoko, Tiote has been the backbone of the Newcastle midfield so it will be interesting to see how Newcastle contend without him. This is especially true given that the Ivory Coast are the strongest team in this year’s competition and will already have one eye on the knock-out stages of the tournament.
Cissé has been the spearhead in Newcastle’s attack in recent seasons and performances such as that against Chelsea where he came off the bench and provided two goals to hand them their first defeat of the season, will have done him the world of good. Newcastle will miss Cissé in the return fixtures with the league leaders, Southampton and Hull City this month.
West Ham enjoyed one of their best starts in Premier League history, and much thanks belongs to Diafra Sahko, who equaled Micky Quinn’s club record run of six goals in as many consecutive games. After inspiring West Ham to a home win against Manchester City, he later earned himself the Premier League Player of the Month Award for October.
It’s clear that Big Sam will miss his biggest asset as Sahko accompanies fellow compatriot Cissé in hope of forming a dangerous partnership duo and taking Senegal as far as possible, to the detriment of West Ham, who face Southampton and Manchester United in Sakho’s stead.
A lethal and powerful striker, Wilfried Bony was 2014’s leading goalscorer when taking into account the full calendar year, and became Swansea City’s all-time Premier League goalscorer. 2015 will be the year that carries the greatest expectation for Bony, and he will be on a mission to prove his worth, starting with performances in the African Cup of Nations and then new club Manchester City. At 26, we are no doubt only being prepared for the best of Bony.
So there we have it. As clearly illustrated, the Premier League in recent years has boasted some of the most talented African players to date and the sort of footballers that would be missed by the best clubs around the world. Such players have paved the way for the proliferation of African football and will surely heat up this year’s competition in Equatorial Guinea.
Good luck to all teams!