Andre Onana has found himself making some unexpected journeys these last few days.
There is his sudden shuffle from number one goalkeeper at Manchester United to discarded, late-transfer window loanee at Trabzonspor. Then there was his desperate sprint, over 90-odd metres of a small Atlantic island, to try to salvage a lost cause.
Onana had run from Cameroon’s penalty area to the edge of a six-yard box stoutly defended by Cape Verde, the so-called Blue Sharks, a team whom all logic would cast as football minnows.
Yet in Praia, the capital of an archipelago nation of just over half a million citizens, Cape Verde on Tuesday took a first-half lead against Cameroon. And they held it.
Under two minutes of stoppage time remained when Onana left his goal to join the thicket of tall men lining up to meet a corner. He leapt high, made contact but with insufficient power. The last chance of an equaliser had fizzled.
Within a few seconds, jubilant islanders were eyeing a place at the next World Cup.
Cape Verde have never been at a World Cup finals before. Cameroon have been to eight of them and famously set a new bar for the African continent by reaching the quarter-finals in 1990.
But qualifying for the 2026 edition, to be staged across North America and with the format expanded to accommodate 48 national teams, now has the Sharks in pole position and Cameroon, aka The Indomitable Lions, in danger of sinking.
The islanders lead Group D of African qualifying by four points with two matches remaining, the last of which, for Cape Verde, is at home to bottom side Eswatini who have no prospect of securing even second place, which, for the best four runners-up of the nine groups, would be a ticket into a fraught set of play-offs.
Cameroon, second in Group D, are not even among those four right now and given their remaining pool matches are against Libya and Angola, both of whom could leapfrog them in the table, these are anxious Lions.
The increased representation at the 2026 World Cup has been a spur to countries like Cape Verde, who only reached their first Africa Cup of Nations finals a dozen years ago.
There are nine automatic spots – up from five – for Africa among the 48 countries who will travel to the USA, Mexico and Canada in June. “For a team like us, the expansion a very good thing,” the Cape Verde manager, Pedro Leitao Brito, known to all as ‘Bubista’, told The National. “It’s been a great stimulus.”
He praised the “character and resistance” of his players, a group drawn heavily from the country’s broad diaspora, and from clubs in various continents, none of them household names unless that household happens to be the home of, say, Al Bataeh supporters in Sharjah.
The Al Bataeh defender, Diney Borges, now in his third season in the UAE Pro League, had a fine game against Cameroon, and he has contributed significantly to the World Cup dream, scoring two of Cape Verde’s 10 goals in qualifying so far.
Dailon Livramento, the Netherlands-born striker, struck the decider against Cameroon, via a zippy counter-attack that began in his own half, had him outpacing the chasing Bryan Mbeumo and planting a firm shot past a static Onana.
Thus, two celebrated employees of Manchester United were left reeling by a forward whose last senior club goal, for Italy’s Verona, was scored more than a year ago.
Livramento has just started a loan spell with Casa Pia in Portugal, from where he can now set his sights on spearheading his country on the greatest stage in his sport, a World Cup.
He may even secure his ticket before Africa’s finest footballer, Mohamed Salah, books his place in the finals with Egypt, who were held to a 0-0 draw in Burkina Faso.
The Burkinabe trail Salah’s group-leaders by five points. The Pharaohs will guarantee top place with two points from their remaining matches, which ought to be a formality given they play rock-bottom Djibouti next.
Whether they have Omar Marmoush, who was withdrawn early in the Burkina Faso stalemate with a knee injury, available then remains to be seen.
North Africa can anticipate at least four World Cup finalists. Morocco, semi-finalists at the 2022 finals in Qatar, became the first qualifier for Africa and, having confirmed their place, extended their run of form to 14 successive victories by beating Zambia.
That record excludes the sequence of games that took Morocco’s home-based team to victory in the African Nations Championship last month. There is great strength-in-depth among the Atlas Lions.
Tunisia booked their ticket to North America thanks to Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane’s 94th minute winner in Equatorial Guinea.
But Algeria laboured, their goalless draw in Guinea meaning that in order to secure top place in a Group D where Uganda and Mozambique trail the Desert Foxes by four points, there is still work to be done – and fans to appease.
Coach Vladimir Petkovic, despite overseeing nine wins and single defeat in the 12 competitive matches since he took on the job 18 months ago, faced shrill criticism on his return from West Africa on Tuesday, as did captain Riyad Mahrez.
Nigeria’s joust with South Africa to qualify from Group C remains a cliffhanger, until next month – and possible beyond.
The South Africans maintained their six point lead over Nigeria with a 1-1 draw against the Super Eagles in Bloemfontein. But hanging over South Africa, the group leaders, is a pending Fifa decision on what sanction, if any, will be imposed on them for having fielded an ineligible player, Teboho Mokoena, in their March victory against Lesotho.
Nor is the battle for the qualifying and play-off berths a two-way contest. Benin, three points behind South Africa, occupy second spot.
In the remaining groups, African champions Ivory Coast kept their narrow lead over Gabon, the two teams sharing a 0-0 draw, Ghana hold a three point advantage over Madagascar, while Senegal breathed a sigh of relief, coming from 2-0 down in Kinshasa against Democratic Republic of Congo to win 3-2 and move above the Congolese into the automatic qualifying place.
