The memories of the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations will be with football fans around the world for a very long time. Ivory Coast emerged Champions of the competition after they defeated Nigeria 2-1.
The Ivorians became the first country to host and win an AFCON competition for the first time in 18 years since Egypt achieved the feat in 2006.
Here are some other records that were set at the tournament;
(1) Number of goals scored
The 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations hosted in Ivory Coast will go down as the best in the history of the competition. The 2023 edition is the third to produce more than 100 goals and set the record for most goals with 119. Equatorial Guinea’s Emilio Nsue Lopez won the Golden Boot with five goals.
(2) Franck Kessie
The Al-Ahli midfielder wrote his name into the history book of the competition by becoming the first Ivorian to score a goal in an AFCON final. The two times they initially won it was on penalties after the game ended goalless.
(3) William Troost Ekong:
The Super Eagles captain who plays for Super League Greece club PAOK also wrote his name in the history books of the 2023 edition of AFCON. He scored three goals for Nigeria which took his goal tally to five across all previous editions.
Ekong became the first Nigerian defender to score five goals in the competition surpassing the four goals scored by Late Stephen Keshi.
(4) Youssef Msakin and Andre Ayew
Both players will also be remembered for the record they set at the AFCON 2023, the duo played in their eighth tournament. The record was held by former Egypt midfielder Ahmed Hassan and Cameroon’s Rigobert Song for having the most appearances at AFCON.
Ayew participated in his first AFCON age of 18 in the 2008 edition which was hosted by Ghana while Msakin made his debut AFCON debut in 2010.
(5) Mauritania scored two goals in a match:
Mauritania shocked football fans around the world when they defeated one of the tournament favourites, Algeria 1-0 in their second group-stage game.
However, this set of Mauritania players wrote their names in gold by scoring more than one goal in an AFCON tournament. This feat was achieved in the final group game against Angola which they eventually lost 3-2.
(6) Rowen Williams:
The South African goalkeeper will not be forgotten by Cape Verde following his heroic saves in the quarter-final match. Williams became the first goalkeeper in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations to save four penalties in a penalty shoot-out.
He also went on to win the golden gloves of the tournament by beating Nigeria’s shot-stopper, Stanley Nwabali
