Undoubtedly, the Qatar 2022 World Cup is the editionwith the greatest suprises ever recorded in tournament history. Saudi Arabia beating Argentina, Germany and Belgium out in the groupstage, Croatia sending home Brazil or Morocco knocking out Spain and Portugal.
At the same time, for the first time ever, a World Cup had at least two Asian teams (Japan and South Korea) and two African squads (Morocco and Senegal) on the Round of 16. If we add Australia, a country from Oceania playing in the Asian Confederation, the surprises just kept coming.
From all these incredible events, Morocco’s World Cup at Qatar is definitely the most impressive story. More than four decades ago, Pele made a shocking prediction involving Africa and many experts throughout the decades made fun of him. Now, that statement might become an extraordinary reality.
What did Pele predict about an African team in the World Cup?
During the 1974 World Cup, Zaire had a terrible perfomance as a representative of Africa. Three losses in three games receiving 14goals and unable to score. The moment that shockedeveryone was a 9-0 defeat against Yugoslavia which raised eyebrows about African teams competing in the tournament.
So, after Zaire’s disaster, Pele was questioned in a 1977 interview about African countries playing in the World Cup and his answer was just incredible at the time.”An African nation will win the World Cup before the year 2000.” As you might imagine, fans and experts mocked and laughed at the Brazilian legend.
However, Africa made progress. Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) reached the quarterfinals. Then,Morocco arrived in 2022 to reach the semifinals and have a real shot at the title. Will Pele be late 22 years if this happen? Yes. Nevertheless, in 1977, no one would have predictedan African team winning the World Cup in the next 100 years. Pele saw it and he might be right.