We are the Champions! (AFCON 2021)
Hello! Hi!
I never talk sports here mainly because I am not really into it, and this is a fashion and style blog after all. But I come from a country that loves sport. We particularly enjoy Soccer or Football. The first toy boys receives when they start walking is a ball. When they are older, they play outside the house with their friends hoping to become one day the next Pele or Messi. Senegal as a nation is so into soccer, it hurts when we lose. And we have lost a lot over the years. You can read about some of our losses on my previous post.
But today we enter a new era of winning. Yesterday for the first time ever we won the African Cup of Nations. This cup is a soccer competition between African nations. Senegal has been participating since 1965. There were many instances we thought we would win mainly because we had a good team. It was the case in Cairo in 1986, in Dakar in 92, in Mali in 2002, in Gabon in 2017 and in Egypt in 2019. We got so close to winning so many times. I was so used to the Senegalese team being a runner up that I partially gave up on the team.
The funny thing about our team and our country is that even if you do not want to care, you end up doing so. We are surrounded by die hard fans who support the team no matter what. And they are so enthusiasitc that they end up pulling you in with heir optimism. You cannot help but want to join in when you see them rocking brand new jerseys, painting the town in our colors of green, yellow and red. It does not hurt that the team plays well. The beginning of this competition was rough though. Yet the boys pulled through and went on to play spectacular matches against Equatorial Guinea and Burkina Faso. I barely watched some of the games. The anxiety was too much to bear. I was either sitting across from the TV or away from it. I distracted myself by playing with my phone or reading a book. It did not help when I hear dscreams coming from outside. I immediatly glanced at the TV to see if we scored or not.
The painting in my neighborhood
Yesterday, when we played against Egypt, I had the same strategy. For a little bit of context, please understand that Egypt was a big opponent. They have won this competition 7 times. Plus they have the star player Mohamed Salah who plays at Liverpool alongside our star player Sadio Mane. An hour before the game, I went on a walk. The entire town was in a frenzy. People have beeing partying and decorating since we won the semi-finals. In my neighborhood, kids spent the entire night painting on the streets and putting up flags. On the day, they put up a makeshift fanzone with projectors and all. People on the streets were all wearing either Senegalese Jerseys or the colors of the flag (some even wore the flag). It was so beautiful to see. When it was starting to get dark, I entered a cafe to buy snacks. There I witnessed Sadio Mane missed a penalty kick at the 4th minute of the game. Still I stayed hopeful.
During the entire game, Senegal was dominating but could not score. The goal keeper for Egypt was protecting the cage at all cost. A friend of mine said that even the wind could not pass by him. I have uttered more "fuck" and "Jesus" in the last match than in my entire life I think. GOD forgive me. I was starting to loose hope so I went to bed to watch a documentary on Golden Girls on my computer. Yet the TVwas still in my sight. When I heard that we would do penalty kicks, my heart sank. We are reknown for always loosing penalties. I shouted when an Egyptian missed his kick. I could not bear to watch the Senegalese shoot. When Sadio was about to kick last, I closed my eyes and increased the sound on my computer to muffle the noise. I could not bear to watch. I was silently praying for a win. When I heard the screams I knew. I jumped out of bed to see. I could not believe it: We WON. We finally WON. My Mother (who hid in her room to pray) came out to hug me. Then we went outside. Our street was wild. People screaming, kssing the floor, banging on doors. It was crazy. I have never seen such emotion in people.
I did not go out to celebrate. First I am not into crowds, and I did not have anyone to go out with me. But people partied all night. I stayed home to watch the players rejoicing on TV. I also went online to see the fun videos people were uploading on social media. The entire town was mad, people dancing on the streets, hugging perfect strangers, running around. I do not even remember the time I went to bed. But when I woke up the following morning, I learned that the President declared that day, a national holiday. We were to welcome our Lions after all. Who could possibly work?
The Lions finally landed on Senegalese soil with the Cup after 4 PM. They rode a bus to do a parade around town, but they could not even move properly because there were so many people outside. In my 41 years on this earth, I have never seen so many people outside. The team was still a great sport cheering with the crowd, taking pictures, doing interviews and dancing on top of their bus. It was so beautiful to see. I had decided to go see them when I knew they would pass a main road by my house. But when I saw the crowd gathered I changed my mind and stayed home. I was also very tired. All the emotion of the previous day wore me out. I quickly fell asleep. This morning when I woke up, I was told they arrived downtown, where they were supposed to go to the presidential palace, at around 1 AM. And people still waited.
Today, we were all back at work. But the euphory did not die down. Everyone was so happy and grinning from ear to ear. I was so sad not to have a jersey to rock but I decided to rep my country in another way. I wore the colors of the flag: green, yellow and red (with a green star)
Comments