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| The day African football reached new heights |
Africa has the proud distinction of producing some of the finest talent the world has ever seen. From Jay-Jay Okocha to Samuel Eto'o to Yaya Toure to Didier Drogba and even today to Mohamed Salah players from Africa have made their mark on the global game.
But it is at the international stage in the World Cup, when it counts the most, where the African continent has been starved of success with only five teams having gone past the first round since 1990.
Based on current results African teams could'nt be further away from Pele's prediction of them lifting the biggest prize in football let alone making it into the semi-finals.
Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon have gone the furthest at the World Cup falling just short of a spot in the last four.
Clearly talent has never been an issue for African teams, but it has been their inconsistency in delivering at major tournaments that has had them at a disadvantage.
African football has always been a proverbial wild west where anything can happen and thus you'll have teams like the Senegal team who come seemingly from nowhere to spring a surprise like they did in the 2002 World Cup reaching the quarterfinals in their first World Cup appearance only to recede back to the unknown they had come from.
The Lions of Taranga haven't been able to qualify for the World Cup since then and will be making their return this year. This clearly examplifies how African teams tend to be one hit wonders.
Ghana and Nigeria are the only teams who were able to deliver some consistency as they to got past the first round in successive tournaments.
Both countries have had talent in spades, but as important as talent is there is much to be said about consistency and experience on the continent when it comes to a major tournament of the World Cup's magnitude.
Of the five teams who will be playing in Russia, only Nigeria have been consistent in qualifying for the World Cup only missing one tournament since their first appearance back in 1994 and its shown as they've reached the last sixteen in four out of the last five appearances at the World Cup.
For the most part a change in mentality is needed as most teams view making the finals as an achievement in itself rather than seeing it as the first step in a gradual process to greater things.
Spain were eliminated in the 2006 World Cup at the last 16 by France and in the space of six years they won three major honours in a row. That came down to three major factors namely; capitalizing on their best generation of players- what most African teams don't do-, innovation and having an end product in mind as opposed to the "happy to be here" and "let's see how far we can go" mentality we've seen in African teams.
Precision, planning and execution are the key ingredients that will be needed to be successful on the world stage and not going into the World Cup and getting plaudits for being a very entertaining team.
What's also become clear is that African teams need succession plans to be put in place for their teams to give them enough stability to become a force instead of being the next one hit wonder.
Just look at the wonders its worked for Germany going back to 2006 where they've successfully integrated youngsters into the team and have found the right blend of youth and experience.
Seeing as African teams have had varied success at youth level even going as far as winning world titles, more time should be dedicated to the development and organizational side of the game to ensure that things keep running smoothly like a conveyor belt with a new player already in place to replace those who's time has passed
Overall the situation is not bad considering since Cameroon became the first team to progress past the group stage in 1990, at least one team has reached the knockout stages at each tournament since then.
There have also been signs of some progress.
Even in Brazil, Algeria and Nigeria broke new ground when they made it out of the group stage marking the first time two African teams made it into the last 16 and in Russia with fingers crossed we might at least see three teams advance.
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