Bengaluru, February 6: The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is the biggest football tournament in Africa that is held once in every two years or sometimes on a special or odd occasion yearly once.
AFCON was founded way back in 1957 and started off as a four-team tournament and has since evolved into a 24-team battle for the top prize in football in the African continent.
Throughout the history of the AFCON from 1957 to the recent edition in 2021, three trophies have been awarded to the winners of the competition.
The original and first trophy, made of silver, was the Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem Trophy, the second trophy was named "Trophy of African Unity" or "African Unity Cup" and the third trophy, a gold plated cup was revealed in 2001.
Ghana obtained the right to permanently hold the first and original trophy in 1978 as the first winner of three AFCON tournaments. The second trophy was awarded from 1980 to 2000, and was given to Cameroon after they won their third AFCON tournament in 2000.
Cameroon were the first nation to be awarded the gold-plated third trophy after they won the 2002 edition.
Later, Egypt won the gold-plated cup indefinitely after they became three-time champions in 2010. But, a replica was taken home by teams instead of the original trophy and that's been the norm since the 2010 edition of the tournament.
Egypt are the most successful side in the tournament with 7 titles to their name, while Cameroon and Ghana are the next best teams in the competition with 5 and 4 titles to their name respectively.
Nigeria have won the AFCON title thrice, while Ivory Coast and Algeria, the winners in 2019, have also won the title twice each. Senegal won their first title in 2022 (AFCON 2021), held a year later due to COVID 10 pandemic.
Here, myKhel takes a look at the full list of Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winners from 1957:
EDITION | YEAR | CHAMPIONS |
1 | 1957 | Egypt |
2 | 1959 | United Arab Republic |
3 | 1962 | Ethiopia |
4 | 1963 | Ghana |
5 | 1965 | Ghana |
6 | 1968 | DR Congo |
7 | 1970 | Sudan |
8 | 1972 | PR Congo |
9 | 1974 | Zaire |
10 | 1976 | Morocco |
11 | 1978 | Ghana |
12 | 1980 | Nigeria |
13 | 1982 | Ghana |
14 | 1984 | Cameroon |
15 | 1986 | Egypt |
16 | 1988 | Cameroon |
17 | 1990 | Algeria |
18 | 1992 | Ivory Coast |
19 | 1994 | Nigeria |
20 | 1996 | South Africa |
21 | 1998 | Egypt |
22 | 2000 | Cameroon |
23 | 2002 | Cameroon |
24 | 2004 | Tunisia |
25 | 2006 | Egypt |
26 | 2008 | Egypt |
27 | 2010 | Egypt |
28 | 2012 | Zambia |
29 | 2013 | Nigeria |
30 | 2015 | Ivory Coast |
31 | 2017 | Cameroon |
32 | 2019 | Algeria |
33 | 2021 | Senegal |