When Mohamed Salah leads out Egypt in their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) semi-final against Senegal, he will feel both the weight of expectation from his nation and his own personal pressure to deliver a place in the final. The North Africans are record seven-time continental champions but the most recent of those successes came in 2010, a year before the Liverpool forward's international debut. "Nobody, even in Egypt, wants to win this trophy more than me," Salah said after helping his team beat Ivory Coast in the quarter-finals. With both players aged 33, and Afcon to become a quadrennial tournament from 2028, this could prove to be Salah's last chance to bring the trophy back to Cairo after several disappointments. And, for all his silverware with Liverpool and personal honours, the feeling persists among many across Africa that a player cannot be classed as truly great until they have an Afcon title to their name.

Source: BBC January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC