Senegal is a country in West Africa, on the Atlantic Ocean coastline, no wonder its beaches breath rituals of football activities daily, especially in the evenings with hundreds of young lads playing football until it gets dark or the tides of the ocean start rising to the sandy shores dangerously, so it is understandable for anyone who has witnessed the dazzling array of skills on show on such beaches that Senegal have won 7 out the last 9 CAF’s Beach soccer tournaments so far, coincidentally they defeated their bitter rivals Egypt in this October 2022 tournament on penalties same way their Senior national team, the Teranga Lions prevailed over the same Egyptians earlier in the same 2022 in the African cup of Nations Cameroon 2021.
What is the Senegalese FA doing differently that led to their recent total grip on African international football at all levels?.
Just January this year, the Home-based Teranga Lions also lifted its first title in the CAF African nations championship (CHAN) and the Senegalese’ FA later put the icing on the cake of its glorious runs of the past 14 months by winning the CAF U-20 AFCON last Saturday March 11 2023 when the youthful Senegalese side defeated their Gambian U-20 counterparts 2 – 0 in the final. The Senegal national under-17 football team have also qualified for the CAF’s U-17 tournament taking place in Algeria next month, a tournament if they go ahead to win again would mark a total sweep of Africa’s men international football in the last 14 months.
It was a total sweep in the CAF’s awards night of 2022 too with Sadio Mané winning the prestigious African footballer of the year title for the second time in his career.
20-year old Pape Matar Sarr, who made his professional debut with Génération Foot in his native country of Senegal, before signing a five-year contract with Ligue 1 side Metz on 15 September 2020 was the Youth player of the year, Pape Ousmane Sakho won the Goal of the year, Coach Aliou Cissé won the Men’s coach of the year, and of course the Senegal national team was the team of the year.
It is a known fact that as at 2022, Senegal with 51 footballers was the African country with the highest number of players in the top five European leagues – a total that put them 10th on the global list. Thanks to the pathway provided by academies such as Dakar’s Génération Foot – which helped to produce Sadio Mané and Ismaïla Sarr because of its links with the French club Metz – a country with a population of 17 million continues to punch above its weight.
The president, Macky Sall, awarded every player in Senegal’s squad £64,000 and two plots of land for their shootout victory against Egypt in the Africa Cup of Nations Cup final in February 2022 in recognition of their historic triumph. But Saer Seck, who set up the Diambars academy with the Crystal Palace manager, French-Senegalese’ Patrick Vieira in 2003 should take part of the glory of the recent runs of successes of Senegalese football.
Diambars, situated in Saly on Senegal’s Petite Côte, is where Idrissa Gueye and Saliou Ciss began their careers before joining clubs in Europe.
Diambars FC de Saly is a football academy in Saly, Senegal, which plays in the Senegalese National League 1. It’s also a part of Diambars, a non-profit organisation certified by UNESCO.
Diambars and Generation Foot academies are two football nurseries that occupy a prominent place in Senegalese football. For instance of the 27 players called up by coach Aliou Cissé, to the last African cup of Nations in Cameroon eight players were trained by these two academies founded in the early 2000s, which corresponds to just over a quarter of those selected.
Since the launch of the league in 2009, the two clubs of Generation Foot and Diambars have won respectively two (2016 and 2018) and a title of champion of Senegal (2013).
There is also an academy called Etoile de Lusitana, a training center less famous than the first two mentioned, these 3 are well funded and they are the major suppliers of Lions and cubs to the Senegal’s den.
Since the country’s foundation in 1960, it has been recognized as one of the most politically stable countries on the African continent.
Though Senegal is classified as a heavily indebted poor country, with relatively low HDI ranked 170th in the Human Development index but the basis of its development lies in education and youth development, where almost half the state’s budget is spent.
Is there a study the rest of Africa could carry out on the football’s programme of this tiny state?,
Yes, I think there is.
References:
Guivaudon, Guillaume (13 December 2021):
“Why Senegal, a small country, is good at providing international organisations with leaders”. D+C. Retrieved 30 November 2022:
Ed Aarons, The Guardian, December 2022
