African Cup of Nations 2008: Goalwatch

GOALWATCH FINAL UPDATE: With the 2008 African Cup of Nations now sadly over it is time to look once more at Just-Football's Goalwatch, where we have been keeping an eye on both scorers and league contributions from around the world's football divisions. Egypt's 1-0 victory over Cameroon in the final brought the goal tally in the tournament to an incredible 99, which constitutes an all-time African Cup of Nations record beating the previous best of 93 in Burkina Faso, 1998.

So to the awards. The winner of the Golden Boot for 2008 will I am sure come as no surprise to many. In fact, if you were to ask anyone who knows anything about football pre-tournament who they would tip for the Golden Boot, a vast majority would have put their money on this man. Even at the tender age of 26 he can surely be considered an African great, and this Barcelona star has not only ended up as the competition's hottest marksman but has also surpassed Laurent Pokou in becoming the all-time leading goalscorer in African Cup of Nations history. Have you guessed who it is yet? Yes indeed, Samuel Eto'o's five goals make him the winner of this year's Golden Boot. Hats off to you Mr. Eto'o, truly a great striker. Runners-up included three Egyptians and an Angolan.


We now move onto settling the matter of the Just-Football Cup of Nations League Contribution Crown, or J.F.C.N.L.C.C for short. (Hmm, must come up with a better acronym). Well it was a contest full of intrigue involving no fewer than 21 leagues from around the world - as true an indicator as any that in terms of international appeal the African Cup of Nations, and indeed its players' stock has never been higher.

The race for the crown began with the U.A.E. League leading the way largely - in fact solely thanks to Sofiane Alloudi's hat-trick for Morocco against Namibia in the opening set of group games. As the competition wore on however, France's Ligue Une and the English Premier League began to take control of the proceedings. With both league's containing a far more populous amount of African players it was perhaps inevitable that they would lead the way in the goalscoring charts and this proved to be the case. However, on account of Amr Zaki, Hosni Abd Rabou and Mohamed Aboutreika all chipping in with goals on a regular basis as the tournament wore on, the Egyptian Premier League soon started to challenge France and England's premier competitions for the League Contribution crown.


In the end it became a three horse race between France, Egypt and England as Spain's Primera Liga lagged behind in fourth, and ultimately, with a contribution of 22 goals the inaugural J.F.C.N.L.C.C ended up in the hands of France's Ligue Une. They beat the English Premier League by three goals with the Egyptian Premier League in 3rd place. Narrowly defeated, the Premiership was left to rue the fact that Manucho's move to Manchester United stalled due to work permit reasons, as his 4 goal contribution would have swung this hotly contested race in its favour. Alas, it was not meant to be for them, and in turn we offer our congratulations to Ligue Une.

So there you have it. With the honours dished out we close the curtains on a quite extraordinary Cup of Nations, particularly in goalscoring terms, with two new all-time records achieved. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and thanks for reading.
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Goalwatch background: The 2008 African Cup of Nations is well underway and has already displayed its capacity to entertain with some fascinating matches full of goals, drama and fervent outpourings of emotion both on the pitch and in the stands. In fact, the tournament’s continued growth in stature and the increasing amount of attention it now receives has got me thinking. I mean, one million visitors are expected in Ghana for the competition and a record 16,000 journalists sought accreditation for the event. Over 80 European based players have headed for West Africa, some amongst the finest talents in the game, and most will be sorely missed by their clubs over the next month. Is it possible that, perhaps, Africa’s football festival is deflecting some attention away from the major European leagues? It wouldn’t dare, would it? If it is, could this have anything to do with Sepp Blatter forming a strategic committee to investigate ‘possibilities for change,’ in the tournament schedule in order to ‘suit the interests of everybody?’ Surely after all, we cannot allow an event that seems to have crept up out of nowhere to start impacting on real football, can we?

Well in order to redress the balance, and in a much needed attempt to deflect some of the limelight back onto club football, Just-Football will be tracking exactly which leagues contribute the most goals to the competition. Hopefully, by doing this domestic football will not feel in any way out in the cold, and Uncle Sepp will finally be able to sleep at night. There there Uncle Sepp.

Goalscorers:

Samuel Eto'o x 5 (FC Barcelona)

Mohamed Aboutreika x4 (Al-Ahly)
Amr Zaki x4 (Zamalek)
Manucho Goncalves x4 (Petro Atletico)
Hosni Abd Rabou x 4 (Ismaily)

Boubacar Sanogo x3 (Werder Bremen)
Sulley Muntari x3 (Portsmouth)
Junior Agogo x3 (Nottingham Forest)
Abdelkader Keita x3 (Olympique Lyonnais)
Salomon Kalou x3 (Chelsea)
Didier Drogba x3 (Chelsea)
Soufiane Alloudi x 3 (Al-Ain)

Michael Essien x2 (Chelsea)
Geremi Njitap x2 (Newcastle United)
Joseph Desire Job x2 (Nice)
Stephane Mbia x2 (Rennes)
Christopher Katongo x2 (Brondby)
Pascal Feindouno x 2 (St.Etienne)
Francileudo dos Santos x2 (Toulouse)
Chaouki Ben Saada x2 (Bastia)
Elrio van Heerden x2 (Club Brugges)
Yakubu Aiyegbeni x2 (Everton)
Mohamed Zidan x 2 (Hamburger SV)
Brian Brendell x2 (Civics)

Asamoah Gyan (Udinese)
Oumar Kalabane (Vestel Manisaspor)
Tarik Sektioui (Porto)
Monsef Zerka (Nancy)
Fredi Kanoute (Sevilla)
James Chamanga (Moroka Swallows FC)
Jacob Mulenga (RC Strasbourg)
Felix Katongo (Petro Atletico)
Issam Jemaa (Caen)
Moustapha Bayal Sall (St. Etienne)
Diomansy Kamara (Fulham)
Mejdi Traoui (Étoile Sportive du Sahel)
Ismael Bangoura (Dinamo Kyiv)
Hicham Aboucherouane (Esperance)
Abdeslam Ouaddou (Valenciennes)
Yaya Toure (Barcelona)
Aruna Dindane (Lens)
Razak Omotoyossi (Helsingborgs)
Achille Emana (Toulouse)
Abdoulaye Diagne Faye (Newcastle United)
Flavio (Al-Ahly)
Katlego Mphela (Supersport United)
Souleymane Youla (Lille)
Marc Zoro (Benfica)
John Obi Mikel (Chelsea)
Henri Camara (West Ham United)
Bakary Kone (Nice)
Yassine Chikhaoui (FC Zurich)
Alain Nkong (Atlante)
Ahmed Fathi (Al-Ahly)
Quincy Owusu Abeyie (Celta Vigo)
Haminu Dramani (Lokomotiv Moscow)

Yousef Alaeldin (OG)

Leagues and Goal contributions:

22 goals - French Ligue Une

19 goals - English Premier League

14 goals - Egyptian Premier League

8 goals - Spanish Primera Liga

5 goals - Girabola, Angolan Championship
5 goals - German Bundesliga

3 goals - UAE League
3 goals - English League One

2 goals - ABSA Premier League, South Africa
2 goals - Namibian Premier League
2 goals - Portuguese Liga
2 goals - Jupiler League, Belgium
2 goals - Tunisian Premier League
2 goals - Danish Superliga

1 goal - Italian Serie A
1 goal - Turkish Premier Super League
1 goal - Swiss Super League
1 goal - Swedish Allsvenskan
1 goal - Vyscha Liha, Ukrainian Premier League
1 goal - Mexican Primera League
1 goal - Russian Premier League