African legends who never played at the World Cup

Mohamed Aboutrika

Aboutrika’s intense loyalty to Al-Ahly during his club career means he never got to test himself in the European arena, but his failure to make the World Cup is a more baffling failure.

The playmaker was a key figure in the Pharaohs side that won three Africa Cup of Nations titles in a row between 2006 and 2010, but several successive failures in World Cup qualification means that that great side never got to represent the continent at the grandest stage.

Aboutrika was present for the heart-breaking defeat by Algeria in the playoff of 2009, and was part of the side crushed by Ghana four years later.

Abedi Pele

Ghana great who was a Champions League winner with Olympique de Marseille and, for a time, could be considered among the most scintillating players in the European game.

However, while the three-time African Footballer of the Year and three-time Ligue 1 champion won the Africa Cup of Nations as a youngster in 1982, Ghana never reached the World Cup during his career.

Kalusha Bwalya

Zambia’s greatest player, Bwalya is the Chipolopolo’s all-time top scorer and their most capped international.

He reached a Nations Cup final in 1994, and may well have reached the World Cup that year had his teammates not perished in a tragic plane crash off the coast of Gabon.

Godfrey Chitalu

Chitalu, who died in that aforementioned air disaster of 1993, is Africa’s most prolific international footballer of all time, having struck 79 goals in 108 games for Zambia.

Quite remarkably for a player of his sensational goalscoring qualities, he spent the entirety of his 18-year career in his homeland, having represented Kitwe United and then Kabwe Warriors for long spells.

Fredi Kanoute

The first player born outside Africa to win the African Footballer of the Year award, Kanoute enjoyed European success at club level—notably winning the Europa League twice with Sevilla—and helped Mali reach the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations.

However, the Eagles’ failure to reach the World Cup means he’s never played at the tournament. Perhaps it would have been a different story had he represented France, for whom he turned out at U-21 level.

George Weah

In the eyes of some, Africa’s greatest ever player—and the only one of the continent’s stars to win the Ballon d’Or—but Weah never reached the World Cup.

The striker starred for AC Milan during the 90s, but being born in Liberia counted against Weah when it came to the World Cup, as the tiny West African nation always faced an uphill battle to reach the tournament.

He did drag the Lone Stars to two Afcon tournaments, which is a magnificent achievement in itself.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Currently tearing it up in La Liga with Barcelona, Aubameyang has established himself as one of the finest goalscorers of his generation, excelling in front of goal in France, Germany, England and now Spain.

He’s had chances to make it to the World Cup—this current Gabon generation aren’t as bad as people like to make out—but the Panthers have never managed to get their act together to push for a World Cup berth.

They’re already out of the running for 2022, and Auba—currently 32—may have missed his final chance of gracing the global stage.

Ace Ntsoelengoe

The legendary Ntsoelengoe never represented South Africa in an official game, having played during country’s period of being suspended—and then expelled—from Fifa.

He did represent a South African multiracial XI in the late 70s, taking part in the 7-0 demolition of Rhodesia and the 5-0 thumping of an Argentina team who would go on to win the World Cup in 1978.

On six occasions he made the NASL’s All-Stars Squad of the Season in the United States—alongside the likes of Franz Beckenbauer, George Best and Pele—and it’s tantalising to imagine how he could have lit up the World Cup.

Segun Odegbami

One of Nigeria’s greatest players, Odegbami can look back on a superb career in domestic and international football, even if he never reached the World Cup.

He was a Nations Cup winner with the West African giants in 1980—the Eagles’ first success—having been part of the squad that had reached the final four two years’ previously.

Odegbami—nicknamed Mathematical—was one of the standout performers of a squad that contained the likes of Muda Lawal and Henry Nwosu, and was once runner up for the African Footballer of the Year award.

Bruce Grobbelaar

Few African players have achieved as much success as Grobbelaar in the European game.

The Zimbabwe stopper was a six-time English champion with Liverpool, and was influential in their 1984 European Cup success—with his bandy legs getting the better of AS Roma in the final penalty shootout.

While he did represent Rhodesia and Zimbabwe 33 times between 1977 and 1998, the southern African side never succeeded in reaching the World Cup.