For Pape Thiaw, Senegal’s 2026 World Cup marketing campaign left greater than disappointment. It left a bitter style—the sensation {that a} group with the expertise and potential to go all the best way had failed to complete what it began.
Talking in Kigali throughout the SportsBiz Africa Discussion board on Thursday, the previous Senegal coach mirrored on the nation’s World Cup marketing campaign whereas making a broader case for higher ambition and funding in African soccer.
Thiaw believes the continent is nearer than ever to producing a group able to profitable the largest prize in world soccer.
“Now we have the experience, we have now the expertise,” Thiaw stated, arguing that the performances of African groups at current World Cups present that the continent is now not merely participating.
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He pointed to the progress made by African nations on the worldwide stage, saying the hole between the continent’s main groups and the world’s greatest is narrowing.
Morocco’s historic run to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup supplied a landmark second for African soccer. Thiaw believes the performances of different main African groups have since bolstered the concept reaching the latter levels of the competitors is now not an unrealistic ambition.
“We're not far off,” he repeated.
However for the previous Senegal worldwide, expertise alone won’t be sufficient.
The larger query, he stated, is whether or not African soccer is ready to make the extent of funding required to show its potential right into a World Cup triumph.
Thiaw argued that sporting ambition should take precedence over fast monetary issues. In his view, international locations severe about profitable the World Cup should be ready to take a position closely, even when there isn’t any assure of an instantaneous return.
“When getting into this competitors, it’s a must to go all in,” he stated. “It’s important to make investments, even when it’s a must to lose.”
His feedback are rooted in private expertise.
Senegal entered the 2026 World Cup with excessive expectations round a squad able to competing on the highest degree. However after taking a two-goal lead in opposition to Belgium within the knockout stage, the Lions ultimately suffered a dramatic 3-2 defeat after further time.
For Thiaw, the elimination was notably painful due to what he believed the group might have achieved.
“It was a disappointment and a bitter style, particularly given the potential of our nationwide group,” he stated.
The sense of an unfinished job has stayed with him.
Thiaw had hoped Senegal might turn into the primary African nation to elevate the World Cup trophy.
“I believed I’d be the primary to do it,” he stated.
That ambition, nevertheless, has not disappeared with the defeat. As a substitute, the expertise seems to have strengthened his perception that African nations have to be extra bold in how they put together for the World Cup.
Thiaw questioned an method wherein the monetary rewards related to competitions can turn into extra essential than the sporting goal itself. African nations, he argued, should be prepared to put money into preparation, infrastructure, technical growth and their nationwide groups in the event that they genuinely need to compete for the trophy.
“For me, honour is extra essential than cash,” he stated.
His message on the SportsBiz Africa Discussion board subsequently prolonged past Senegal.
The gathering introduced collectively figures from throughout Africa’s sporting ecosystem to debate the enterprise, funding and growth of sport on the continent. For Thiaw, it was a possibility to attach his expertise as a participant and coach with a broader dialog about the way forward for African sport.
He believes the continent already has the important substances.
“The expertise is there. The experience is there. The performances are bettering,” he stated.
What stays, he argued, is the willingness to make the mandatory funding and method the World Cup not merely as a contest to take part in, however as a trophy Africa can realistically win.
Senegal’s newest marketing campaign might have led to disappointment, however Thiaw refuses to see the outcome as proof that Africa is incapable of going all the best way.
Fairly the other. For him, the hole is closing.
“We're not far off,” he stated.
And maybe the bitter style left by Senegal’s World Cup exit is exactly what he hopes will gas the subsequent try and make African soccer historical past.
