The coaches for the five African teams  – Ghana, Tunisia, Senegal, Morocco, and Cameroon – are all home grown coaches.

This is the first time all teams from Africa will have local coaches leading them to the biggest football fiesta in the world, a development observers believe bodes well for the game on the continent.

Rigobert Song, 46, is a Cameroon football legend having performed at four World Cups and helped the Indomitable Lions win the Africa Cup of Nations twice in eight tournament appearances.

Aliou Cisse, 46, wants to atone for an agonising exit from the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where Senegal lost out on a second-round place only because they accumulated more yellow cards than Japan.

Former Ghana World Cup midfielder Otto Addo, 47, who had never been a head coach, faced a baptism of fire as the Black Stars’ boss last February, inheriting a demoralised squad after a stunning loss to the Comoros condemned the four-time African champions to a first-round exit from the 2021 Cup of Nations.

Walid Regragui, 47, has had little time to prepare the Atlas Lions having replaced Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic on the last day of August this year. Born in Paris, he played right-back for a number of French clubs and one in Spain and was capped 45 times by Morocco, the home of his parents.

Jalel Kadri has been in charge since March after being promoted from an assistant role when Mondher Kebaier was sacked following an Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals loss to Burkina Faso.