Can an African Team Win the World Cup?

Many football lovers hope an African team will finally win the men's 2022 Fifa World Cup. The world has been waiting for this since the great Brazilian player Pelé predicted (in the 1970s) that an African country would win before the year 2000.

Africa's best played lower levels of competition and won less often. Instead of competing with the world's best, Africa's top countries seem better matched to a country like Greece, which has played in three World Cup final stages and made the last 16 in 2014. This is an impressive record, but few people outside Greece consider the country a potential World Cup winner. So why do we think African countries should carry such hope?

Africa's top soccer playing nations do not compete regularly with top nations and are thus not able to learn these technologies. They may dominate continental tournaments, therefore, but will ultimately lack the knowhow needed to really compete - consistently and regularly - with the world's best.

Matthew Andrews for The Conversation believes that African countries can win the odd game against a global power. But the world champion must overcome at least five elite opponents (and draw against two more) in the next month. None of the African contenders in this year's World Cup has won five matches against elite opposition in the last five years.