eBusiness Weekly
Tadious Manyepo
The fiesta is scheduled to be staged in Cameroon between January 9 and Feb- ruary 6.
Zimbabwe are in Group B, along with the West African powerhouse, Guinea and Malawi.
Besides their higher-ranking on the field of play, Senegal who finished as the runners-up in the previous edition, also lead all the 24 AFCON contestants by a distance, in terms of players’ market value.
Boasting of world-class stars in the mould of the likes of Liverpool ace Sadio Mane and Napoli defensive stalwart Kalidou Koulibaly, Senegal’s squad have a combined market value of a whopping 341,9 million euros.
Mane’s value alone is almost five times the value of the entire Zimbabwean team but Moyo insists the Senegalese team can still be beaten.
“It’s not a question of the quality they have, but it’s about who is hungrier on Mon- day. We have a chance of making history in this opening game,” said Moyo.
“We will leave everything we have on the pitch. We know how important the game is given it is our first match and it carries a significant impact on how we will be doing at the tournament.”
Zimbabwe have only one player who plies his trade in one of the world’s top five leagues in Tino Kadewere who turns out for Lyon in the French Ligue 1.
He is apparently the most valuable in the squad with the authoritative online platform transfer market pegging him at €8 million.
Highly-rated Bournemouth defender Jordan Zemura and Teenage Hadebe who plays for Houston in the United States come in as the second and third most valuable players in the AFCON squad at 2,5 million and 1,5 million respectively.
Entirely, the 23-man squad who are set to do duty for the country at this biannual tournament has a combined market value of 15,73 million euros.
That makes them the 17th most valuable team out of the 24 countries competing for continental honours in Cameroon.
With Senegal leading the lot, another Warriors opponent in Group B Guinea also have some significantly more valuable squad as well.
Led by Liverpool star Naby Keita, himself with a market value of €30 million, Guinea have a combined peg of €95,55 million, making them the 10th most valuable team at this jamboree.
But Malawi who Zimbabwe face on Jan- uary 14 sit on position 22 out of the AFCON cast with a mere €4,38 million in combined market value which is just half of Kadewere alone is worth.
Only Sudan (2,88 million) and Ethiopia (2,78 million) have less valuable squads than Malawi who are making their third appearance at the contest.
Behind Senegal is Nigeria (246,28 mil- lion), Morocco (217,8 million) and Algeria (185,8 million) with Egypt (161,8 million) also making it into the top five of the market worth table.
AFCON Market value table in Euros
1. Senegal (341,9 million) 2. Nigeria (246,28 million) 3. Morocco (217,8 million) 4. Algeria (185,8 million) 5. Egypt (161,8 million)
6. Mali (152,35 million)
7. Ivory Coast (151,1 million)
8. Cameroon (140.7 million)
9. Ghana (127,55 million)
10. Guinea (95,55 million)
11. Burkina Faso (76,13 million) 12. Tunisia (60.9 million)
13. Gabon (51.08 million)
14. The Gambia (45.23 million)
15. Cape Verde (20,43 million)
16. Guinea Bissau (19,50 million) 17. Zimbabwe (15,73 million)
18. Mauritania (12,03 million)
19. Comoros (11.53 million)
20. Sierra Leone (10.43 million) 21. Equitorial Guinea (5,88 million) 22. Malawi (4.38 million)
23. Sudan (2,88 million)
24. Ethiopia (2.78million)
F o r f e e d b a c k [email protected]; Follow on Twitter manyepotaddy3.
