Senegal

AFCON 2021 ran 9 January to 6 February 2022 in Cameroon, postponed by 12 months from the original schedule due to COVID-19. Aliou Cissé's Senegal — beaten 1-0 finalists at AFCON 2019 by Algeria — entered as one of the pre-tournament favourites. They navigated a flat group stage with two draws and a win, beat Cape Verde 2-0 in the round of 16, edged Equatorial Guinea 3-1 in the quarter-finals and broke down Burkina Faso 3-1 in the semi-final. The final at Yaoundé's Olembe Stadium on 6 February 2022 paired Senegal against Egypt and Mohamed Salah, Mané's Liverpool teammate at the time.

The match was 0-0 after 120 minutes. Mané had a seventh-minute penalty saved by Mohamed Abou Gabal. Edouard Mendy was outstanding in the Senegal goal. The shootout went to sudden death after Egypt missed their first kick: 4-2 to Senegal, with Mané striking the winning penalty. The post-match images of Mané celebrating while consoling Salah are among the iconic photographs of African football in the 2020s. Edouard Mendy was named tournament Best Goalkeeper; Mané was named Player of the Tournament.

The win ended a 60-year wait. Senegal had been to two previous AFCON finals (2002, 2019) and lost both. Cissé — who as a player had captained the 2002 generation and missed Senegal's decisive penalty in the AFCON 2002 final shootout against Cameroon — became the first man to lose and win an AFCON final in the same role. The squad was almost entirely European-based: Mané (Liverpool), Mendy (Chelsea), Koulibaly (Napoli), Idrissa Gueye (PSG), Pape Matar Sarr (Metz, on loan from Spurs), Boulaye Dia (Villarreal), Sarr (Watford). Four of those starters had passed through Génération Foot.

AFCON 2025 ran 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026 across six Moroccan cities. Pape Thiaw, in his first major tournament since replacing Aliou Cissé in October 2024, took Senegal through Group D, past Burkina Faso in the round of 16 and DR Congo in the quarter-final. Mané scored the only goal of the semi-final, a 1-0 win over Egypt at Stade Mohammed V in Casablanca that eliminated Mohamed Salah for the second time in three AFCON cycles. The final pitched Senegal against host nation Morocco at Rabat's Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium on 18 January 2026.

Pape Gueye scored in the 94th minute — four minutes into extra-time stoppage. Senegal led 1-0 with the trophy in sight. The eighth minute of stoppage time produced the controversy: VAR review awarded Morocco a penalty for a hold on Brahim Díaz by El Hadji Malick Diouf. Senegal's players protested, head coach Pape Thiaw instructed the squad to leave the pitch, and the players walked off. Sadio Mané eventually persuaded the team to return after approximately 14 minutes. The match restarted, the penalty was missed and the final whistle blew on a 1-0 Senegal win. Mané was named Player of the Tournament; Sarr finished as one of the top assist providers; Mendy returned as Best Goalkeeper.

On 17 March 2026 the CAF Appeal Board ruled that the walk-off constituted a forfeit under Article 82 of the competition regulations and awarded Morocco a 3-0 default win and the AFCON 2025 title. The Senegalese FSF formally appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne the next week; the CAS appeal was still pending as of May 2026. The on-field result and Mané's Player of the Tournament award are widely held by Senegalese fans and the West African press as the truer record. Pape Thiaw remains in post; squad continuity into the 2026 World Cup has not been disrupted.

Mady Touré founded Génération Foot in Dakar in 2000 and named it after his father Amara Touré, a former Senegal international footballer of the 1960s and 1970s. The academy operated as a youth-team setup until 2003, when Touré negotiated a formal partnership with French Ligue 1 club FC Metz. The arrangement was simple: Metz would have first-look rights on Génération Foot graduates, with structured fees flowing back to Dakar. The structure has remained intact for more than two decades.

Sadio Mané arrived at Génération Foot in 2009 at 17, after a long argument with his Bambali family about leaving home. He was sold to Metz in 2011, then to Salzburg, Southampton and Liverpool. Ismaïla Sarr followed the same route in 2016, also via Metz, then on to Rennes, Watford, Marseille and now Crystal Palace. Habib Diallo went via Metz to Strasbourg and now Damac. Pape Matar Sarr graduated to Metz then to Tottenham Hotspur in 2021. Papiss Cissé came through earlier and went on to Newcastle United via Freiburg. The current academy generation is fronted by Amara Diouf, named in a 2025 ranking of the world's top 50 teenage wonderkids.

The senior team won three Senegalese Ligue 1 titles between 2016-17 and 2022-23, plus three FA Cups (2014-15, 2017-18, 2024-25). Stade Lat-Dior in Thiès hosts senior fixtures. Génération Foot has been imitated across West Africa — Rights to Dream in Ghana, Diambars FC's Saly campus, the Aspire Africa programme — but no academy on the continent has produced the same density of European-league senior internationals over a sustained two-decade window.

The Senegalese diaspora across France (estimated 250,000-plus), Italy (110,000-plus) and Spain (75,000-plus) is the largest scouting pool. Most Senegal-eligible footballers in European football today were born in West Africa and migrated through academy partnerships rather than via European-born youth structures — the inverse of Morocco's model. Génération Foot and Diambars are the two primary hubs; Aspire Academy Dakar (operational 2007-2014) was a third before its closure.

France is the biggest destination. Mané, Sarr, Diallo, Pape Matar Sarr, Boulaye Dia, Edouard Mendy, Krépin Diatta, Idrissa Gueye and most of the squad spine arrived in France first via Metz, Rennes, Sochaux or the Paris youth networks. Italy and Spain provide the senior-club layer through Napoli (Koulibaly), Atalanta, Sevilla and Villarreal. England is the long-term Premier League employer — Liverpool (Mané), Chelsea (Mendy), Crystal Palace (Sarr), Everton (Gueye, return), Tottenham (Pape Matar Sarr), West Ham (Diafra Sakho before his retirement). The Saudi Pro League has emerged as the late-career destination since 2023: Mané at Al-Nassr, Koulibaly at Al-Hilal.

FSF has run a deliberate diaspora-engagement programme since 2018. Pre-tournament squad camps have been hosted at Clairefontaine in France, at Coverciano in Italy and at the FSF's Bambali Academy in Senegal. The 2002 World Cup generation — Diouf, Camara, Khalilou Fadiga, Salif Diao, Tony Sylva — set the template; the 2021 AFCON winners and 2025 finalists are the inheritors.

Domestic broadcast: RTS1, the public broadcaster, carries every Lions of Teranga match. TFM, the private competitor, has secondary rights and runs full sports programming. Canal+ Sport Afrique is the premium pan-African option for the Senegalese diaspora, with full Ligue 1 highlights, CAF Champions League, AFCON and Premier League. New World TV — the Togo-based pan-African sports broadcaster — picked up Senegalese Ligue 1 live rights in 2024 and is the most accessible option for domestic match-day streaming.

Betting: Senegal's only legally licensed sports-betting product is operated by the Loterie Nationale Sénégalaise (Lonase), the state-owned lottery and gaming monopoly. Lonase runs retail terminals across all major cities and has a small online product. Private offshore operators — 1xBet, Premier Bet, Sportybet — maintain heavy advertising visibility and a substantial Senegalese-resident user base despite not being licensed locally. Lonase has lobbied the government to restrict offshore-operator access; no enforcement action has been taken to date. Lions of Teranga match-day betting volume peaks during AFCON cycles and was reportedly its highest-ever during the 2021 final shootout.