Football-mad Mali may well have a strong case to be Africa’s top footballing country never to have won the Africa Cup of Nations in the tournament’s 69-year history, but head coach Tom Saintfiet believes that his experiences with the Gambia can help the Eagles end their wait for AFCON gold.
The West African heavyweights progressed from Group A behind hosts Morocco, taking three points from the opening round to set up a Last 16 showdown with Tunisia in Casablanca on Saturday.
Despite having reached the semifinals on six separate occasions, while also producing two former African Footballer of the Year award winners, Mali have never got their hands on the continent’s grandest prize; could Belgian head coach Saintfiet write a remarkable chapter with the Eagles over the coming weeks?
“It’s a nice sentence, ‘the strongest football nation in Africa who never won the AFCON’, sure,” Saintfiet told ESPN. “If you know that Ethiopia, Congo-Brazzaville, Zambia all won it, Zaire. It could be right.
“Mali are a real football-loving nation with a long history. In 1972 they were second, they’ve been semi-finalists five more times, the last two times in 2012 and 2013, and they’re always qualifying for the AFCON. There’s a lot of ambition, with good players at the highest level. Mali’s a country where people love football.”
While they’ve never clinched the continent’s grandest senior prize, Mali are a genuine powerhouse at youth level, both continentally and internationally, where they have reached the semifinals of the U-17 or U-20 World Cup on five occasions, and twice been African champions at the U-17 Nations Cup.
They finished third at the U-23 AFCON in Morocco two and a half years ago, and Saintfiet believes it’s only a matter of time before success at youth level can be translated to the senior side.
“There’s good development, in the clubs, and in the many academies, with people who work very hard with know-how of how to develop good players,” Saintfiet continued. “The majority of our players come from one or two academies, where they’re developed at the top level, and that’s an advantage.
“The Mali players are skilful, confident on the ball and have good ball control, and that’s always shown in the way they play football.”
The 52-year-old is one of the most experienced coaches at the AFCON, having previously held the reins of Malawi, Togo, Ethiopia, Namibia and Zimbabwe among 25 different posts stretching across three continents.
In Africa, he’s most respected for his work with Gambia, qualifying the nation for their first ever AFCON in 2021, and then reaching the Last 16 – defeating Tunisia en route – before eliminating Guinea to advance to the quarters, where they were eventually defeated by hosts Cameroon.
The veteran believes that his experience with the Scorpions, who also reached new heights in the FIFA Rankings, could now serve Mali as they look to make history of their own in Morocco.
“For me, there’s not a big difference [between Gambia and Mali], because when I was with Gambia, we set our demands quite high and we were ambitious,” he recalled. “Maybe the outside world thinks it’s different, but even in Gambia, people had high demands and didn’t want anything less than becoming champions. It’s the same in Mali.”
“The only difference is that Mali is more recognised as a respected African country, but while Mali were between seventh and 12th in their last five AFCONs, with Gambia we were sixth in our first,” he continued, “so for me it’s not a big difference.”
Mali didn’t set the world alight during the group stage, being held by Zambia before coming from behind to draw with Morocco, in a match they arguably should have won had refereeing decisions not gone against them in the second half. A 0-0 draw with the Comoros in Casablanca on Monday sent them through to the knockouts with three points, albeit without a win to their name.
Considering they reached the quarterfinals in 2024 under Eric Chelle, elimination against Tunisia in the Last 16 on Saturday would represent a disappointing return for Saintfiet.
“We want to achieve the things we put for ourselves,” he concluded. “I’m defending the colours of Mali now – the green, the yellow, the red – and we’re ambitious.
“The experience I had with Gambia helps me grow and be more prepared for these kinds of tournaments, but for myself, or for the experience, I don’t see any difference between Gambia or Mali.”
Having already made AFCON history of his own, you wouldn’t put it past Saintfiet repeating the feat with Mali, even though improvement is required if they’re to see off a Tunisia side licking their own wounds after a sub-standard group stage.
“Mali is a big team with players of high technical and physical quality,” Tunisia head coach Sami Trabelsi said in Friday’s pre-match press conference. “The match will be decided by small details and mistakes, and there won’t be many chances.
“The most important thing is to take advantage of them,” he said. “We’ll try to deliver a more consistent performance.”
