No Longer Naïve: African Football’s Growing Impact at the World Cup

by Ibrahim Mustapha

No Longer Naïve is an in-depth look at the history of African soccer at the game's greatest showcase event.

As soccer grew globally over the 20th century and the World Cup became the zenith of the sport internationally, Africa was left trailing, both through a lack of organization and exclusion by the powers that be. In 1974, Africa's 'best' team, Zaire, were humiliated on the world stage, creating a negative perception of African soccer. Teams from Africa were often labelled naïve in their approach, but gradually African nations repaired their reputation. This led to increased participation, vastly improved players and famous victories over the world's best - culminating in the tournament being hosted on the continent for the first time in 2010. However, while great strides have been made on the pitch, greed, in-fighting, violence and the whiff of corruption behind the scenes have undermined progress. African sides are no longer naïve, but are we any closer to seeing a team from Africa lift the World Cup?

256 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Charlotte Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating book which covers the history of African teams competing at the World Cup and AFCON. The book moves through time with each chapter and tells the stories of various nations, their fall, their rise and their falls again as off-field incidents seem to account for too much of the talking point at times. But it is however and inspirational book and illustrates the growth of the continent and specific countries, perhaps spelling potential success at one point? It is hard to say, but as Ibrahim writes in his book. It will be interesting to see how Africa as a continent does at the 2026 World Cup with nine teams from Africa being able to represent the region

[Jonny Brick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great mix of history and politics, football reportage and some memoir. Very good on Nigeria and Algeria, and on the way political figures like Mobutu in Zaire had their say in African football.

[Yorben Geerinckx · Rating 4 out of 5]

This read certainly changed the way I look at African football. For me, it taught me to look beyond the stereotypes about African football and show more dignity and respect to it. I think Mustapha perfectly captures the patronising way Europeans treat African football, meanwhile adequately proving them wrong.

On top of that, this book is both amusing and informative. I really enjoyed to learn more about how football and politics were/are intertwined in Africa. I'd surely recommend this book to anyone who shares this same interest in the relationship between football and society.

On the other hand, Mustapha fascinatingly describes all World Cup action featuring African countries. Even though this might get a bit dreadful and repetitive after a while, all those memorable moments are a joy to relive.