THE Confederation of African Football has named four stars of the game on the continent, including Mikel Obi, as Draw Ambassadors for the Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Africa Cup of Nations draw ceremony.
The official draw for the tournament will be held tonight in Abidjan, with Mikel, Didier Drogba, Sadio Mane and Achraf Hakimi all involved, CAF announced today.
The tournament itself will be held from January 13 to February 11 next year after it was postponed from this June and July over weather concerns.
Of the four Draw Ambassadors, three have won the AFCON title with their countries while the fourth was in the African team that went farthest in the World Cup.
Mikel was one of the best players of the tournament in South Africa in 2013 when Nigeria won the trophy for the third time and he was the runner-up to Yaya Toure in the African Footballer of the Year award for that year.
Interestingly, Mikel won a medal with the Super Eagles at four of the five AFCONs he attended: bronze in 2006, 2010 and 2019 as well as the 2013 gold.
The 36-year-old retired recently after a successful career in Europe during which he won multiple Premier League titles and the 2012 UEFA Champions League with Chelsea. He also played in Norway, Russia, Turkey and China.
On his part, Ivorian striker Drogba is one of the most recognisable faces in football globally.
He was a huge force in the Elephants team that won the AFCON title in Equatorial Guinea in 2015, three years after losing the final to Zambia in the same country.
Like Mikel, 45-year-old Drogba is also a Chelsea legend and he is often referenced by young African strikers as their role model.
Mane and Hakimi are still active but have already had successful careers.
Now based in Saudi Arabia, Mane is a big hero in Senegal and he inspired his country to their first-ever AFCON title in Cameroon in 2021, two years after they lost in the final to Algeria in Egypt.
The 31-year-old forward had a glorious spell at Liverpool, where he won the Premier League and UEFA Champions League titles before joining Bayern Munich in 2022.
Hakimi, 24, is the youngest of the four but he has also seen massive success, winning UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid, Serie A title with Inter Milan and Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain.
The right-back was a key member of the Morocco team that stunned the world at the Qatar 2022 World Cup as they reached the semi-finals, the farthest by any African team in history.
PHOTO: Mikel Obi (right) and Didier Drogba (left) in Abidjan for the AFCON draw. Salomon Kalou is in the middle.
