With precisely 27 days to go till the kick-off of the TotalEnergies CAF Ladies’s Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2026 (26 July – 16 August), CAFOnline seems to be again at a few of the defining milestones, landmark moments and key statistics which have formed Africa’s premier girls’s soccer competitors.
Key Milestones
- 1998: The competitors formally adopts a gaggle stage format, increasing to eight taking part nations.
- 2000-2006: Nigeria establishes its dominance on the continent by profitable 5 consecutive continental titles.
- 2008: Equatorial Guinea makes historical past by turning into the primary nation apart from Nigeria to raise the trophy, ending the Tremendous Falcons’ reign.
- 2019: The CAF Govt Committee approves the growth of the event from eight to 12 taking part groups.
- 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic forces the cancellation of the competitors.
- 2024 (performed in 2025): Hosted by Morocco, the thirteenth version enjoys unprecedented international media success, with matches broadcast in additional than 120 nations worldwide.
- 2024: On the pitch, Nigeria additional cements its legacy by coming from two targets all the way down to defeat hosts Morocco 3-2 within the remaining and declare a record-extending tenth continental crown.
- 2026: A landmark version because the competitors formally expands to 16 taking part nations for the primary time.
Key Statistics
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- 14: The TotalEnergies CAF Ladies’s Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2026 would be the 14th version of Africa’s flagship girls’s soccer competitors since its official launch in 1998.
- Ever-Current: Nigeria and South Africa stay the one two nations to have certified for each version of the event.
- Nigeria’s Dominance: The Tremendous Falcons lead the all-time honours checklist with 10 titles, forward of Equatorial Guinea (2) and South Africa (1).
- A Well-known Comeback: Nigeria secured their record-extending tenth title by overturning a 2-0 deficit to defeat hosts Morocco 3-2 within the 2024 remaining.
- Africa’s Most Profitable Nationwide Staff: No African nationwide aspect – males’s or girls’s, has gained extra continental titles than Nigeria’s girls’s group.
- Trailblazers: Nigeria lifted the inaugural title in 1998 earlier than profitable the competitors’s first 5 editions.
- An Unique Membership: Solely three nations have ever gained the TotalEnergies CAF Ladies’s Africa Cup of Nations: Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa.
- Double Continental Champions: Nigeria and South Africa are the one African nations to have gained each the boys’s and girls’s Africa Cup of Nations.
- A Historic Hat-trick of Internet hosting: Morocco will turn into the primary nation to host the event for a 3rd consecutive version in 2026.
- Last Heartbreak: Morocco heads into 2026 after struggling back-to-back defeats in dwelling finals, shedding to South Africa in 2022 and Nigeria in 2024.
- Good Document: Nigeria boasts a outstanding file in finals, profitable all 10 of the matches they’ve contested.
- South Africa’s Breakthrough: After shedding 4 consecutive finals, Banyana Banyana lastly claimed their maiden continental title on Moroccan soil in 2022.
- Runners-up Document: South Africa has completed as runners-up 4 occasions, greater than every other nation, forward of Ghana and Cameroon with three every.
- Podium Regulars: Nigeria has completed among the many event’s prime three on 11 events – a contest file, whereas South Africa and Ghana have every recorded seven podium finishes.
- Greatest Last Victory: Nigeria’s 5-0 victory over Cameroon within the 2004 remaining stays the most important profitable margin in a Ladies’s AFCON remaining.
- The Solely Goalless Last: The 2018 remaining between Nigeria and South Africa stays the one remaining to complete 0-0 earlier than being determined by penalties.
- Cape Verde’s Historic Debut: Cape Verde will make its first-ever look on the finals in 2026, turning into the twenty eighth nation to take part within the competitors.
- Island Achievement: Cape Verde turns into solely the second island nation to qualify for the finals after Réunion in 2000.
- COSAFA Illustration: Malawi turns into the eighth COSAFA member nation to qualify for the event
- WAFU Milestone: Cape Verde is the tenth member affiliation from the West African Soccer Union (WAFU) to succeed in the finals.
- Leaders in each Class: No nation has performed extra matches or recorded extra victories within the historical past of the competitors than Nigeria’s Tremendous Falcons.
Key Info
Nigeria’s Goalscoring Dominance: Nigerian gamers have completed because the event’s prime scorer on 9 events. Nevertheless in 2022, Rasheedat Ajibade shared the Golden Boot with Morocco’s Ghizlane Chebbak and South Africa’s Hildah Magaia after every scored three targets.
An Enduring Legend: Former Tremendous Falcons striker Perpetua Nkwocha stays the competitors’s all-time main scorer with 24 targets.
Exceptional Consistency: Nkwocha additionally holds the file for scoring within the highest variety of completely different Ladies’s AFCON matches, discovering the online in 20 separate video games.
Single-Match Document: No participant has surpassed the 11 targets scored by Perpetua Nkwocha throughout the 2010 version.
4-Time Golden Boot Winner: Nkwocha claimed the event’s Golden Boot on 4 events (2002, 2004, 2006 and 2010).
Among the many Biggest Goalscoring Campaigns: A few of the most prolific particular person performances in Ladies’s AFCON historical past belong to Nkwocha, who scored 11 targets in 2010, 9 in 2004 and 7 in 2006. Fellow Nigerian Mercy Akide additionally netted seven targets throughout the 2000 version.
Nigeria’s Document Assault: Nigeria scored 28 targets throughout the inaugural event in 1998–the highest tally by any group in a single version.
Energy in Depth: At the latest version, Nigeria scored 14 targets, with 11 completely different gamers getting on the scoresheet.
The First Hat-trick: South Africa’s Veronica Phewa turned the primary participant to attain a Ladies’s AFCON hat-trick, reaching the feat in a 3-1 group-stage victory over Zimbabwe in 2001.
The 4-Objective Membership: Solely two gamers have scored 4 targets in a Ladies’s AFCON finals match: Nigeria’s Perpetua Nkwocha towards Cameroon in 2004 and Asisat Oshoala towards Mali in 2016.
Longest Unbeaten Runs
Nigeria’s Unbeaten Sequence: Nigeria holds the file for the longest unbeaten run in Ladies’s AFCON historical past, going 16 consecutive matches with out defeat between 2002 and 2008 (13 wins, three attracts). *
Unbeaten however not champions: South Africa accomplished the 2018 event with out shedding a match in regulation time, solely to be overwhelmed by Nigeria on penalties within the remaining.
Most Adorned Gamers
The next gamers share the file for probably the most Ladies’s AFCON titles, with 5 continental crowns every:
- Florence Ajayi (Nigeria): 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006
- Perpetua Nkwocha (Nigeria): 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014
- Osinachi Ohale (Nigeria): 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2024
- Francisca Ordega (Nigeria): 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2024
- Goalscoring Traits: The Final 5 Editions
| Version | Matches | Objectives | Objectives per Match | Prime Scorer(s) |
| 2014 | 16 | 44 | 2.75 | Want Oparanozie (Nigeria) – 5 targets |
| 2016 | 16 | 39 | 2.44 | Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria) – 6 targets |
| 2018 | 16 | 51 | 3.19 | Thembi Kgatlana (South Africa) – 5 targets |
| 2022 | 28 | 63 | 2.25 | Ghizlane Chebbak (Morocco), Rasheedat Ajibade (Nigeria) and Hildah Magaia (South Africa) – 3 targets every |
| 2024 | 26 | 55 | 2.54 | Ghizlane Chebbak (Morocco) – 5 targets |