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The summer is set to get hotter as the 2019 African Cup of Nations kick starts this Friday with hosts Egypt playing Zimbabwe in the curtain raiser.
Contrary to the notion that this is going to be a rather somber affair with the competition traditionally struggling to whip up a frenzy, this year's edition of the tournament could be the one to look forward to, owing to the sheer number of stellar names heading to the Arab nation for the 21-day jamboree.
Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, along with Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez, Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly, Crystal Palace's Wilfred Zaha and Ajax's Hakim Ziyech are some of stars repping the competition, as the Egypt showpiece has an uncanny glamorous feel to it.
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Given the attacking talents on board, we might have also have a fierce competition for the Golden Boot on our hands. So let's rank the five biggest favorites for the highest scorer distinction:
#5 Cedric Bakambu (DR Congo)
Does the name ring a bell? He once tormented defences in LaLiga with Villarreal, and also holds a decent record against the league’s top shouts such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla. He later became the most expensive African player of all time, when Chinese side Sinobo Guan signed him for €45 million in January last year.
Despite being on target against Tunisia and Libya during the qualifiers, he missed almost half of it as he was dropped from the squad.
But a fine start to the 2019 season in the Chinese league earned him a call up again, and struck the winner on the final day to down Liberia and seal the Leopards’ tickets to Egypt.
He ultimately finished his club season with nine goals and three assists in 13 appearances, so the omens for him going into the tournament are pretty good.
#4 Odion Ighalo (Nigeria)
Once a prolific scorer in the Premier League, Ighalo’s international career hit the rocky roads when he switched to the Chinese Super League in 2016.
Not only was he subsequently overlooked on multiple occasions, but also made a paltry return of only two goals in eight appearances across two years.
A testing World Cup campaign last year, where he failed to fire, put him at the receiving end of more censure and criticism from the Nigerian fans. But Ighalo ain’t amongst those to back down.
In the qualifiers of this tournament, the former Watford hitman struck seven times to not only drag the Super Eagles to the finals, but also finish as the top scorer of the campaign.
His commendable resurgence has now regained him the trust of the fans and their manager alike, and will most likely spearhead Nigeria’s line-up given the decline of Kelechi Iheanacho and Ahmed Musa.
#3 Sadio Mane (Senegal)
We witnessed the best of Sadio Mane last season. The Reds winger was on a relentless run and even upstaged Mohamed Salah on various occasions to become Liverpool’s talisman.
He also shared the Golden Boot prize with his Reds counterpart for 22 goals in the league, but the strikes against Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Bayern Munich showed he can settle big games too.
Besides, his pace and technique was a serious threat to the defences, whereas Mane can be a thorn in the face during set-piece situations too. The Lions of Teranga will be hoping to capitalise on these abilities.
In a frankly negotiable group containing Tanzania, Algeria and Kenya, Mane would be licking his fingers. He will once again compete with Salah for the most prolific tag, as the Liverpool teammates are on a collision course in the semi-finals.
#2 Hakim Ziyech (Morocco)
Ajax’s fairytale campaign last season was scripted by several young and ebullient players coming of age.
And even though Ziyech doesn’t really fall into the same bracket of the young guns, he too had a telling contribution in the domestic double success as well as the semi-final finish in the Champions League.
After all, the Grodinzonen winger struck 21 times and made a staggering 24 assists throughout the course - posting his career best figures after truly a remarkable season. However, he’s yet to replicate any of these heroics with the Atlas Lions.
He fired a blank in last year’s World Cup and struck only thrice in the qualifiers of the African Cup, missing a large chunk of it due to injury issues.
But coming off the back of such a productive season, Morocco will have plenty of expectations from Ziyech, who, if able to conjure even an iota of that barnstorming form, can rip defences apart.
#1 Mohamed Salah (Egypt)
The Liverpool hitman may have dropped off a few notches from the standards he set last year, but nevertheless did enough to help the Reds achieve a club record of 97 points, retain the Premier League Golden Boot, and also help clinch the European glory.
To put things into perspective, Salah netted 27 times in all competitions - including in the Champions League final - besides assisting another 13.
And we’re saying he wasn’t as good - that’s the bar the diminutive Egyptian has set in recent times, so the expectations on his shoulders going into this competition is astronomically high.
The Pharaohs finished as the runner-up in 2017’s African Cup, but have won on each of the previous two occasions they have hosted the tournament.
So if Egypt were to be third time lucky, then it’s imperative to have Salah firing at all cylinders.
