Although the great powers of football are in Europe and South America, the growth of football in Africa, especially in recent years, has been impressive. But of course, there was a first African team that faced the European and South American powerhouses for the first time. Here we tell you which one, and to prepare for Qatar, here you can try the simulator.
In the next edition of the World Cup there will be 5 African teams, which is undoubtedly a great success for this continent that had to fight hard to obtain more places for its teams, and by dint of the good results and the appearance of great world stars, they have could have a better consideration.
A good example of them were the participation of Egypt and especially Cameroon in the 1990 World Cup, which made FIFA grant an extra place to Africa at that time. With the increase of the team, and the growth of football in that continent, the number of places was raised again to the current 5. The Africans who will go to Qatar are Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, Morocco and Tunisia.
The first African in a World Cup
The 1930 World Cup had many difficulties, and in fact it was difficult to convince especially the non-South American teams to participate. In fact, the vast majority were precisely teams belonging to what is now Conmebol (7 in total). In addition, there were the United States and Mexico from North America, and France, Yugoslavia, Belgium and Romania from Europe.
In other words, there was no African team, but we had to wait until the next edition to see the first one. That 1934 World Cup in Italy had 16 participants, most of whom were Europeans.
However, Africa was present represented by Egypt. At that time there was no group stage, but they began to play playoffs in a round of 16. The egyptians faced Hungary, a much superior team against whom they also played a very worthy game losing 4-2 and thus being eliminated.