Several well-recognised stars on the continent will not be at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, including a Player of the Year nominee at the upcoming CAF Awards.
This week marked the conclusion of the AFCON 2025 qualifiers, with 23 teams joining hosts Morocco after three months of qualifying.
While Ghana's failure to qualify has arguably been the biggest shock, other notable absentees include Cape Verde, Guinea and Namibia, who all took part in AFCON 2023 earlier this year in the Ivory Coast.
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As such, this means that some high-profile stars will not be taking part in the showpiece, including CAF POTY nominee Serhou Guirassy.
Despite scoring six goals in four games during the qualifiers, his country, Guinea, finished third in their group, narrowly missing qualification by one point behind second-placed Tanzania and three points behind group winners DR Congo.
Guirassy was excellent for Stuttgart last season, scoring 30 goals in 30 matches in all competitions for the German side.
This prompted an €18 million (R338 million) transfer to Borussia Dortmund, where he has already registered 13 goal involvements in as many matches, according to Transfermarkt.
Meanwhile, Ghana's absence means that the Premier League duo of Mohammed Kudus and Thomas Partey will not be travelling to Morocco in December next year.
Kudus is one of the most highly-rated African players in Europe, with the West Ham United star reportedly on the radar of both Liverpool and Arsenal. Partey, meanwhile, has been a key figure for Arsenal this season, having already played 16 games for the Gunners. But despite seemingly returning to his best, he won't be able to translate that form for his country at AFCON.
Lastly, the South African-based pair of Peter Shalulile and Gabadinho Mhango will also miss out on the next AFCON after their respective countries, Namibia and Malawi, were denied a spot.
Both Namibia and Malawi finished bottom of their qualifying groups, with the former failing to register a single win during qualifiers, while the latter managed to get four points, which wasn't enough to qualify.
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By Lukhanyo Mtuta
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