World Cup 2026 Qualifiers: Good news for the Black Continent

Early morning October 9 (Vietnam time), Egypt became the 3rd representative of Africa and the 19th representative globally to win a ticket to the 2026 World Cup.

Salah (10) and his teammates won tickets to the 2026 World Cup - Photo: Reuters

And in that journey, we cannot fail to mention the name Mohamed Salah, the best star in the history of Egyptian football.

Decent compensation for the "king of Egypt"

Before Salah's arrival, Egypt had only qualified for the World Cup once. In 2018, they qualified for the second time in history, with Salah as their star player. Sergio Ramos' jiu-jitsu armlock in the Champions League final at the end of the 2017-2018 season significantly damaged the Egyptians' dreams. Salah suffered a serious injury before the World Cup, and has barely recovered.

Four years later, Salah suffered another tragedy, in the knockout match between Egypt and Senegal. The two teams drew 1-1 after two matches and went into a penalty shootout to decide the winner. Fans will forever remember the image of the "Egyptian king" being hit by a laser, to the point that his entire face was covered in green light. As a result, Salah missed the first penalty in the shootout, and Egypt lost the match.

The Liverpool superstar's career has been a complete success at club level, but a very unfinished one at the national team level. At the age of 33, Salah still hasn't had a truly complete match at the World Cup.

Justice for the stars

Therefore, many neutral fans are happy for the "Egyptian king" when the team from the land of the pyramids won a ticket to the 2026 World Cup. Their task is actually quite easy: topping Group A including Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

For most football fans, they would not be able to name a single player from any of the above teams. Egypt's group win - equivalent to a ticket to the World Cup - was a foregone conclusion.

But there is no injustice. The 53 African teams participating in the qualifying round were divided into 9 groups, and each group winner got an official ticket. With FIFA expanding the World Cup, Africa also increased the number of official tickets from 5 to 9. Therefore, tragedies like Salah's in the 2022 qualifying round are unlikely to happen again. To be fair, Egypt was defeated by Senegal that year, which was understandable, because Senegal completely overwhelmed them in terms of strength.

In this year's qualifying round, both teams were placed in two different groups, and both were overwhelmingly strong in their respective groups. Before the 9th round, Senegal topped Group B with 18 points, 2 points more than the second-placed team, Republic of Congo, and only had to face two very weak teams, South Sudan and Mauritania, in the last 2 rounds.

Similarly, Morocco also showed overwhelming strength in Group E, Tunisia dominated Group H, to become the first 3 teams with Egypt to win tickets. And most likely Ghana, Algeria, Ivory Coast... will also follow. That means it is very unlikely that the top African teams will be absent from the 2026 World Cup.

Too many World Cup spots make the qualifying stage less attractive. But overall, fans feel it is fairer for superstars. Because many African teams have outstanding individuals who are just as good as the big teams in Europe or South America.

Salah leads the race for top scorer

With 2 goals against Djibouti (helping Egypt win 3-0), Salah has broken away in the race for the top scorer in the African qualifying round. Currently, the "Egyptian king" has 9 goals.

Across all regions, Salah is currently fourth in the race for the top scorer, behind Almoez Ali, Son Heung Min and Taremi.

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/vong-loai-world-cup-2026-mung-cho-luc-dia-den-20251010095250303.htm