Nwankwo Kanu: Nigerian Legend Snubs Super Eagles, Picks AFCON 2025 Favourite

Nwankwo Kanu: Nigerian Legend Snubs Super Eagles, Picks AFCON 2025 Favourite

  • The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations will be held between December 2025 and January 2026 in Morocco
  • Nigerian football legend Nwankwo Kanu has predicted his winner of the 35th edition of AFCON
  • He surprisingly overlooked his country, Nigeria, in favour of one of the best African teams recently

Nigerian football legend Nwankwo Kanu has picked his winner for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and surprisingly ignored the Super Eagles.

AFCON 2025 is scheduled for December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026, in Morocco, with CAF pushing it further by six months due to the weather in Africa in the summer.

Nwankwo Kanu playing for Nigeria against South Korea at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Nwankwo Kanu playing for Nigeria against South Korea at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Photo by Jamie McDonald.
Source: Getty Images

The qualifying games for the tournament are ongoing, with each participating country expected to have played four games by the end of the October international window.

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Kanu picks AFCON 2025 winner

Kanu has courted controversy with his fellow Nigerians after overlooking the Super Eagles and AFCON 2023 winner Ivory Coast when naming the favourites to win the 2025 edition.

The two-time African Footballer of the Year picked the host country, the Atlas Lions of Morocco, as the favourite to win it on home soil.

“Morocco has always boasted great players playing in Europe, but this generation is unparalleled. Yassine Bounou, Achraf Hakimi… The technicality and talent of the entire squad give this team the status of a clear favourite for the upcoming AFCON,” he told Le Site Info.
“They always start the competition as favourites but then fail to realise the dream of millions of Moroccans. By organising the CAN at home, Morocco has every chance of being crowned champion for the second time in its history.”

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According to CNN, they became the first African country to reach the World Cup semi-final in Qatar but failed to capitalise at AFCON 2023, crashing out in the round of 16.

4 Eagles stars risk suspensions

Legit.ng reported that four Super Eagles stars risk suspensions for the second leg of the AFCON 2025 qualifier against Libya in Benghazi if they pick up yellow cards in Uyo.

Nigeria will be on the verge of qualifying for AFCON 2025 in Morocco if they beat the North African team in the doubleheader during the October international games.

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Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
Elijah Odetokun avatar

Elijah Odetokun (Sports Editor) Elijah Odetokun is a Nigerian sports editor at Legit NG. He has four years of working experience having previously worked at Daily Times Nigeria (August 2020 - September 2020), OmaSports (December 2020 - June 2021), El Futbolero (July 2021; September 2021- November 2021), and Sports Brief (November 2022 - July 2024). He is a press conference and interview specialist and has attended trainings held by Reuters, AIPS, and FIJ. He holds a Bachelor of Agriculture (2021) from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. Reach me via elijah.odetokun@sportsbrief.com