Paris Saint-Germain and the Africa Cup of Nations

Throughout Nations Cup history,  a number of Parisian players have shone, though not necessarily when they were at the club. François M’Pelé (Congo, 1972), Jay-Jay Okocha (Nigeria, 1994), Patrick M’Boma (Cameroon, 2000 & 2002) and Siaka Tiéné (Côte d’Ivoire, 2015) lifted the trophy while Salah Assad (Algeria, 1980), Godwin Okpara and Okocha (Nigeria, 2000), Talal El Karkouri (Morocco, 2004), Modeste M’Bami (Cameroon, 2008), Siaka Tiéné (Côte d’Ivoire, 2012) and Idrissa Gueye (Senegal, 2019) have all finished runners-up.  Jean-Pierre Tokoto (Cameroon, 1968), Salah Assad (Algeria, 1982), Sammy Traoré (Mali, 2004) and Boukary Dramé (Senegal, 2006) all reached the last four.

It was in 2004 that a current Paris Saint-Germain player first won the tournament: Selim Benachour played 60 minutes of the final as hosts Tunisia triumphed 2-1 over Morocco. The Paris youth academy product scored an important goal early in the competition in the 1-1 draw with Guinea, establishing himself as a key member of the side.

Eleven years later, Serge Aurier, Parisian from 2014 to 2017, won the 2015 continental title with Côte d'Ivoire against Ghana (0-0, 9-8 pens.) in Equatorial Guinea, scoring one of the spot-kicks in the dramatic final shoot-out. Two former Paris Saint-Germain players faced off in the dug-out in the 2019 final with Djamel Belmadi's Algeria beating Aliou Cissé's Senegal 1-0 in Egypt. 

Achraf Hakimi (Morocco), Abdou Diallo and Idrissa Gueye (Senegal) will represent the club in Cameroon hoping to emulate Benachour and Aurier. Belmadi and Cissé will also be there again along with a former Paris Saint-Germain coach, Morocco boss Vahid Halilhodzic.