Cape Verde last week secured qualification to their first World Cup in style, their 3-0 win over Estwatini ensuring they rode out the four point lead they’d established over Cameroon in September to finish top of their group.

When the Blue Sharks represent their tiny archipelago population of just over 500,000 at next year’s showpiece tournament, they’ll trail only Iceland as the tournament’s greatest minnow, whose population stood at 370,000 in 2018.
Having modernised their approach and dipped deep into the islands’ diaspora, they’ve unlocked a golden generation; quarter finalists at last year’s AFCON where they topped a group featuring Ghana and Egypt, they’ve proven that effort was no fluke with sustained performance across a lengthy qualification run.

‘What an incredible story. The African campaign takes so long, starting all the way back in November, 2023. The fact that they closed out the campaign was remarkable, qualifying ahead of the continental heavyweights who hold the African record for the most World Cup appearances, with eight’, BBC Sport Africa’s Rob Stevens told Box2Box.

‘They needed two bites of the cherry to seal it. They missed the first chance against Libya in one of the craziest games I’ve ever watched, which ended 3-3. But the fact they then had a home game was all the sweeter in that they could then celebrate on home soil.

‘They’ve had a history of migration away from the islands because there haven’t been many industries – there’s links to the old colonial rulers in Portugal, who they only gained independence from in 1975. Pretty much all of their squad is based overseas – so the diaspora has been very much key.

‘As much as people say ‘the World Cup’s been expanded to 48 teams, that’ll give more opportunities to smaller nations’, Cape Verde thoroughly deserve their place at the World Cup for the first time.’

Their success leaves Cameroon as one of four sides to play for only one more place out of Africa, and entry into the six-team inter-confederation playoff for just two places at the World Cup. Along with Nigeria, they are the big name African nation that has missed the bus, and must now chart a brutal, unforgiving path.

‘Cameroon have been under par for much of the qualifying campaign. They won only one away game, against Mauritius in this most recent international break. They went to Libya; didn’t win. They went to Angola; they didn’t win. They went to Estwatini, and didn’t even win against them.

‘From Nigeria’s point of view, they’ve really dropped the ball here. Again, a heavyweight of Africa football, have made some brilliant memories at the World Cup…but they’ve had a disastrous campaign. They drew at home and away against Zimbabwe, and lost in Benin.

‘If you change any one of those results, they probably would have qualified ahead of South Africa. So they’ve first got to play Gabon, and the winner of that game will play either Cameroon or DR Congo. Those games will happen in Morocco on neutral soil.’
Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Tunisia, Cote D’Ivoire, Algeria & Senegal, along with Cape Verde and South Africa, really do read as a who’s who of African football. That either one or both of Cameroon and Nigeria will miss states that while qualifying may no longer be as brutal as it was under the 32-team World Cup model – when all group winners were still subject to a head-to-head playoff – there’s still an uncompromising urgency about CAF qualification.

‘I think the magic is still there because, pretty much almost across all the groups, it just gives that extra hope to other teams. Pretty much all groups had an amazing storyline, or a head-to-head that went to the final games’, said Stevens.

‘Of the nine groups, only three of them didn’t go down to the very last round. So the magic is definitely still there in African qualifiers because every time the international window rolls around and the World Cup qualifiers are on, everyone knows that this is the biggest game in town.’