Last week, a lot of stuff happened. There was that Thierry Henry thing. The placenta healing thing. The Russia getting knocked out of the World Cup thing. The U.S. men sucking at soccer thing.
All of those were pretty important. Unfortunately, in our distraction with those things, pretty much everyone missed another potential big deal: the draw for the African Cup of Nations was held Friday.
Now here’s the thing: I don’t know anything at all about African soccer. This really isn’t my fault; there’s not an easy way to watch. In fact, outside of internet streams (whether paid or otherwise), I’m pretty sure there isn’t ANY way to watch the tournament itself. The qualifiers were next to impossible to find, especially if you were looking for an English feed. What little African soccer I’ve seen has been entertaining, but it’s definitely hard to find.
So rather than break down who’s going to win when Burkina Faso faces Togo on January 15th, I figured I’d cover this by telling you the information you need to know: which players are likely going to be gone during the African Cup of Nations? Your team-by-team guide is after the jump.
ARSENAL
- Emmanuel Eboue (Côte d’Ivoire)
- Alexandre Song (Cameroon)
ASTON VILLA
- Moustapha Salifou (Togo)
BOLTON
- Danny Shittu (Nigeria)
BURNLEY
- André Bikey (Cameroon)
CHELSEA
- Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire)
- Michael Essien (Ghana)
- Solomon Kalou (Côte d’Ivoire)
- Mikel John Obi (Nigeria)
EVERTON
- Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Nigeria)
- Victor Anichebe (Nigeria)*
- Joseph Yobo (Nigeria)
FULHAM
- Dickson Etuhu (Nigeria)*
- John Paintsil (Ghana)
HULL CITY
- Daniel Cousin (Gabon)
- Kamel Ghilas (Algeria)
- Nelson Onakoya (Nigeria)
- Seyi Olofinjana (Nigeria)
MANCHESTER CITY
- Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo)
- Kolo Toure (Côte d’Ivoire)
PORTSMOUTH
- Nadir Belhadj (Algeria)
- Arune Dindane (Côte d’Ivoire)
- Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria)
SUNDERLAND
- John Mensah (Ghana)*
TOTTENHAM
- Benoît Assou-Ekotto (Cameroon)
- Sébastien Bassong (Cameroon)
WIGAN
- Richard Kingson (Ghana)
The guys with an asterisk were recently called up to the squad but not on the squad at the end of qualifying. The teams most affected are probably Everton and Hull City; while Chelsea’s losing players, they have more depth than either of the other two and are already preparing for the loss, complete with extra cash and a freshly-opened transfer window; Everton and Hull, however, have no extra money and not much depth. It will help both of them out immensely if Nigeria gets knocked out early on.
Spurs losing Bassong and BAE isn’t too great, either. They don’t have enough depth at center back to cover well, especially with Ledley’s on going issues. While I’m no big fan of BAE, he’s better than Bale at left back (although I’d love to see Bale get some minutes on the left side of midfield in some lesser games). I guess ‘Arry will push Corluka over to the center and play Hutton at right back? Grreeeaaat.
[...] the African Cup of Nations coming up in January there’s an article which details which players will be missing from which club and with Song and Eboue missing [...]
MH – Hull won’t be hurt nearly as bad as everyone thinks. Cousin hasn’t played at all this season. Ghilas has, and has done relativley well, but between Altidore, Folan, Fagan and V of H, they should be able to sort it out. Brown could even move Mendy into a more advanced position to replicate Ghilas’s pace. Olofinjana is certainly a loss, but he has been carrying a few injuries as well, so we have some experience already this season playing without him.
Also…. Nelson Onakoya doesnt play for Hull….
I for one am glad Guinea didnt qualify, as Zayatte loss would have been probably the worst….
They wouldn’t be hurt if it happened right now, but projecting ahead it could become a problem if injuries mount up. Hull’s squad isn’t very big, so losing four guys could (in theory) mess them up; it’s not so much the quality but the quantity.
Who’s Nelson Onakoya!?