Ahead of Sunday’s Final Match between hosts Morocco and Senegal, Arsène Wenger, FIFA Chief Global Football Development, has praised the intensity, competitiveness, and high physical and mental levels displayed by competing teams at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Morocco 2025.
“Le Professeur” as the former Arsenal manager is fondly called, said as much during a workshop with the competition’s Technical Study Group (TSG) in Rabat on Friday.
He said: “I would say overall, the competition was very intense, and it’s a characteristic of modern football. The intensity was very high. The mental attitude of all the teams was very strong, and the physical level was absolutely unbelievable.”
He noted the difficulty in predicting winners due to the narrow gap in the quality across the teams , highlighting the technical maturity of the two finalists.
He continued: “ The intensity (of AFCON 2025) was superb and the competition was very competitive. When you watch the games, it’s very difficult to predict who will win the game, and so the levels of the teams are very close. But at the end of the day, you have two teams in the final that had much traction, more of a technical level and maturity.”
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Mr. Wenger was impressed that the last four teams were led by African coaches, viewing this as evidence of significant growth on the continent. He pointed out that modern sport information flows quickly, minimizing gaps between teams’ levels and resulting in marginal differences
“I was impressed by the level of the coaches, I would say, and I’m very happy as well to see that now you have African coaches who lead the African teams,” he noted. “And that is good news. It shows as well that the organization level was very high, that the decisions made by the coaches were very good during the games. And overall, that is very positive.
“ It shows as well that there is no gap anymore and that information today in modern sport travels very quickly and that everybody is at the top level and the marginal differences are very small.”
Wenger lauded the TSG’s detailed analysis work and passion, emphasizing their crucial role in guiding the future development of African football based on trends and outcomes.
“ This is a very important group, and I must say, having visited them today, I was impressed by the quality of their work and the passion they put into the analysis. And for us, it is very useful to continue to develop real players,” he added.