Lagos — Only last Sunday, January 31, the Pharaohs of Egypt completed a halt trick of victories at the just-concluded African Nations Cup in Luanda, Angola, otherwise known as CAN 2010, by narrowly defeating a young, relatively inexperienced Ghana Black Stars side, one-zero, in front of an estimated 48,000 spectators, including the FIFA president, Sep Blater, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) president, Isa Hayatu and the Angola president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos. The Egyptian Pharaohs achieved a feat such as had never been done in the fifty-three-year history of the continent's top soccer competition.

So, quite understandably, football-crazy fans in Egypt, Africa's third most populous country, went ballistic when the man who loves to be called "Gedo" netted the eighty-fifty-minute strike that finally put paid to the stubborn opposition provided by the young, energetic Ghana team that had surprised many by reaching the final despite losing many of their older, more experienced members. If the Egyptians proudly call this generation of Nations Cup conquerors the greatest ever squad they've had, who would blame them? If soccer pundits and what have you proclaim this generation of Pharaohs as the greatest ever champions of the Nations Cup, who can contest that?

With an indigenous coach as their tutor, by name Hassan Shahatta, these Pharaohs' squad have also set a record that may remain unbeaten for years and years to come. In a total of nineteen Nations Cup matches, they were undefeated. The last time they lost in the tournament dates back to 2004, when they were defeated two-to-one by Algeria, the South African bound country they mercilessly humiliated four-nil at a highly temperamental semi final in Angola.

Yes! The heart trick of victories that everybody has been talking about! It's a journey that started at Egypt-2006, after beating all-comers on their way to the final game of the tournament. A pulsating penalty shoot-out against the on-form team of that tournament, the Elephants of Ivory Coast, ended with victory for the Pharaohs: and people argued back then that their playing as hosts was the most decisive factor in their triumph. Maybe.

But, did they not prove their doubters wrong, two years later at Ghana-2008, when, once again, they defeated all before them, only to overcome a tough challenge against Samuel Eto'o and Cameroonian Lions, one-zero. And now, this halt trick achieved in Angola.

Depending on what side of the fence you are, the resounding success achieved by this Pharaohs' squad speaks volumes of the growth of the round-leather game in that North African country, and may be, as well, a plus, some say a minus, for the development of the sport across our continent. At Ghana-2008 and Angola-2010, the Pharaohs achieved victory in style, and in the most convincing of manners. Certainly, the journey to the trophy in Angola could never have been described as a fluke, because they defeated, rather handsomely, four of the five World Cup-bound sides, whether Nigeria's Super Eagles who they defeated in the group stage three-one, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon who they spanked by the same margin at the quarter-final stage, their arch-rivals, Algeria's Desert Foxes who were walloped four-nil at the semis or the Ghana Black Stars, who they beat at the final. The only side headed for South Africa-2010 they didn't get to play against were the Ivorian Elephants who had been said by pundits to be the number-one favorites to lift the trophy. But, even this present generation of Ivorian Elephants who are the best ever to come out of that West African country, were roundly beaten by this same Egyptian team at the semis of Ghana-2008, four-one.

What does that say about this squad of Egyptian footballers, especially given the fact that they won't be representing Africa at the World Cup, for the simple fact that luck,

and not much else, enabled the same Algeria team they walloped at Angola-2010 to book the last World Cup ticket allocated to Africa, after defeating the Pharaohs one-zero in a highly nervy encounter in Sudan, last November.

So, what does any detractor have to say about a country that won the continent's top soccer prize an unprecedented seven times-in 1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010? The all-important point we seek to make here is this: Four of the seven trophies Egypt has won at the Nations Cup, were, not only achieved under the tutelage of one home-grown coach, Shahatta, but virtually every single one of the seven trophies were won by squads that paraded a vast majority of home-based players. This is one big lesson that countries in sub-Saharan Africa, especially West Africa, should learn from and quickly, too: Namely, that with good planning and organization, in addition to the judicious use of scarce resources, a sound indigenous coach can also lead a mainly home-based squad of Super Eagles, Black Stars or Elephants to Nations Cup glory.

Yes! It's not in doubt and has never been, that Egyptian football, like many other leagues across North Africa, has benefited significantly from its proximity to Europe where the game of the round-leather has developed massively over the decades. Indeed, the Egyptian league, as well as its counterparts in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and more recently, Sudan, is proving to the rest of the continent how beneficial good funding, continuity and proper organization can be.

By now, perhaps, counterparts in Nigeria and elsewhere across sub-Saharan Africa will have realized how useful or wise it can become, if the local league were to be allowed to produce the core of the national side, as was once the case, when big European and Asian clubs had not started pricing away our best talents. Look at all the big, world class players the likes of Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mali, Ghana and Nigeria have been taking to the Nations Cup in recent years. With the exception of the Cameroonians, the rest have fared rather badly, comparatively, that is. Look at the squad of stars the Ivorians took to Egypt-2006, Ghana-2008 and Angola-2010, the likes of Drogba, the Toure brothers, Kisita, Kalou, Dindane, Eboue, the Kone brothers and others. Most of them play top-level soccer for some of Europe's biggest and richest clubs, and yet, they are on the verge of fading away without winning a single trophy for their country, and no-one knows when next La Cote D'voir or Nigeria or Mali will again be blessed with such rare collection of talents, all making themselves available in a single generation.

No one is saying, and we certainly cannot claim, that the inclusion of our foreign-based players has not helped improve the quality of the national teams of sub-Saharan African countries. If anything, the relatively new era of our players being able to travel to Europe and elsewhere to gain more exposure and experience has enabled the likes of Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Zambia to stand up to the players and teams coming from the better-organized and better-funded leagues of North Africa. In fact, the "expertise" these foreign-based players have brought back to us has helped to stem the dominance. Some of the best, the likes of Europe, South America, North America and Asia may throw at us, during World Cup tournaments. Without such "foreign imports"' so-called, perhaps, Nigeria would not have won the Nations Cup at Tunisia-94, and may not have begun qualifying for the Mundial, since then. Maybe, too, the Lions, twelve years earlier in Italy, would not have managed it to the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

But, what we're really talking about here is long-term development of the round-leather game in our respective countries, which having a policy of home-based players forming the nucleus of our national squads can help to bring about. A star team, we're saying in essence, is a more expedient option than a team of stars. That's what these Egyptian Pharaohs and the Europe-conquering Greek squad of 2004 have taught us. These are hard lessons.