CAF president Patrice Motsepe has set African football a clear long-term target: an African nation must win the FIFA World Cup. Opening the CAF Strategy Conference in Santa Maria, Sal Island, Cabo Verde/
Motsepe said Africa had already shown the quality to compete at the highest level and must now turn that progress into the ultimate achievement in international football.
“We know how good we are and the world has seen how good we are. We have to win the World Cup one day. An African nation has to win the World Cup,” Motsepe said.
His declaration came as CAF, FIFA officials, national association presidents, coaches and technical leaders gathered in Cabo Verde to discuss the future direction of African football and the development of the continent’s 54 member associations.
The conference is focused on making football across CAF’s 54 member associations “world-class and self-supporting”, while also improving CAF competitions so they can become more globally competitive.
Motsepe’s challenge comes after a landmark 2026 World Cup for African football, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino highlighting the progress made by the continent’s teams.
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Nine of Africa’s 10 representatives reached the knockout stage at the 2026 tournament, a significant improvement from 2018, when no African team progressed beyond the group stage.
That performance has strengthened the sense that African football is closing the gap at the highest level, but Motsepe’s message in Cabo Verde was that reaching the latter stages is no longer enough.
The ultimate objective, he said, is for one of the continent’s nations to lift the World Cup.
Africa has come closest to achieving that through Cameroon, Senegal, Ghana and Morocco, who have all reached the quarterfinals, while Morocco became the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final in 2022. the next challenge is to go further.
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With the road to the 2030 World Cup already beginning, Motsepe’s remarks give the strategic discussions in Cabo Verde a broader target which is building an African football system capable not only of producing competitive national teams, but ultimately a world champion.
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