Oh, you thought we are done once the group stages are over? You couldn't be more wrong! We are seeing this all the way through, y'all. And so here is my ranking of the best U-23 performers of the AFCON Round of 16 – just scrapped from top20 to top15 due to a smaller pool of players to pick from...
First, a confession. Before he was named in Ghana’s preliminary twenty-nine man Africa Cup of Nations squad, I had not heard of Samuel Owusu. But the dearth of other wingers selected suggested the Čukarički man had a serious shot at a place on the plane to Egypt. And isn't he now making the most of it...
And so we have arrived to the first big crossroads where we say goodbye to a large chunk of our U-23 AFCON talent pool. In total, we are paying farewell to 49 U-23s out of 136. Did someone from the axed teams make it to our last group stage rankings despite the sour exit?
Shoot Like Odil 