The AFCON 2025 is unarguably the biggest football competition in Africa. Many African footballers dream of playing at this stage of their careers. For some players, the 2025 edition would be a dream debut and for others this would be a tournament to forget.
Yes, several players have not been able to make their team’s squad list. As a result, they would not be able to compete to take their countries to win the trophy. Well, some of these players are huge stars for their club and national teams who absence would be felt.
In this post, we would be taking a deep look into five players who would be missing out of AFCON 2025. You’ll also see likely reasons behind their omission and how it could affect their national team. This posts promises to be a great read. Let’s get started!
Five Players Who Would Be Missing Out Of AFCON 2025
Here are five players who would be missing out of the prestigious AFCON 2025 tournament edition:
1. Ola Aina
Ola Aina is a Nigerian footballer who plays at the right back position. He is a regular starter for both the Nigerian Super Eagles and for his club side, Nottingham Forest.
Since he made his debut for the Super Eagles in 2017, Ola Aina has been one man who has enjoyed several call-ups to the Super Eagles and has even played in several tournaments for his team including tournaments like the AFCON 2019 and AFCON 2023 tournaments.
Ola Aina is one of the big missouts of the forthcoming AFCON 2025 tournaments. Well, Ola Aina would be missing the 2025 edition of the AFCON due to an hamstring injury which he sustained.
The injury was sustained in a match representing the Super Eagles against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa at the World Cup Qualifiers. The match which was played in a very bad pitch resulted was tightly contested and ended in a 1-1.
Since that match, Ola Aina has been out of action for his club side and now would be missing out on Africa’s biggest continental tournament. In recent times, there have been reports of Ola Aina reportedly appearing in training sessions at his club side but it seems Eric Chelle would not be willing to risk him at the national team level.
His exclusion from the AFCON 2025 would leave a huge gap to be filled by the coaching staff. This is because Ola Aina is an experienced defender who has featured in several high pressured matches fir the Super Eagles.
However, Eric Chelle would be counting on his other players such as Bright Osayi to step up to the occasion when the tournament begins.
2. Simon Adingra
Simon Adingra is an Ivorian defender who is known for his contributions to the Ivory Coast national team. In fact, Simon Adingra was one of the players responsible for his national team clinching the AFCON 2023 trophy.
In addition to his team’s victory at the previous edition of the competition, Simon Adingra was also awarded the Best Young Player of the AFCON 2023.
Just like Ola Aina, Simon Adingra is one of the big names that would be missing out of the AFCON 2025 tournaments. It has been reported from the camp of the Ivory Coast national team coaching staff that Simon Adingra was dropped from the squad list due to his lack of regular playing time at the club level.
As a result, his lack of starting appearances for his club side has not been able to convince the coach to include him in the squad.
This exclusion could pose a big challenge for the Ivory Coast national team as they go into the AFCON 2025 tournaments. This conclusion is based on the fact that Simon Adingra offers dribbles and speed to the national team.
As a result, the Ivory Coast national team may struggle to find someone who would be able to convince these two abilities and still gives the same workrate as Simon Adingra.
3. Victor Boniface
In the past two years, Victor Boniface has emerged as one of the most called up strikers for the Super Eagles. In fact, to many he was dubbed as the ideal substitute for Victor Oshimen.
This was due to his ability to hold the ball in tight spaces and ability to link up with midfielders and still score goals all at the same time. Even with all of these qualities, Victor Boniface seems to have failed to impress the coach of his national team, Eric Chelle.
One of the problems highlighted by the media to have affected the call up of Victor Boniface to the Super Eagles AFCON 2025 squad is his injury crises and loss of form. In the past 6-12 months, Victor Boniface has suffered injuries that has kept him out of important matches for his club side, Werder Bremen.
Even in his return from injuries, Victor Boniface has struggled to rack up numbers in goals and assists as he did in his previous seasons.
With Victor Boniface out of the mix, Nigeria may be forced to change their tactical structure into the games. All of the changes to be made still depends on Eric Chelle.
4. Vincent Aboubakar
Vincent Aboubakar is a Cameroonian striker who boasts of having 110 appearances for the Cameroonian national team and scoring over 40 goals for the team.
In the AFCON 2021 tournament, Vincent Aboubakar was named as the highest goal scorer and has captained the team for over 3 years. With this illustrious profile, Vincent Aboubakar is expected to be the first name in Cameroon’s AFCON 2025 squad list, but the surprising thing is that he wasn’t even considered.
The captain of the Cameroonian national team, Vincent Aboubakar would not be featuring in any games at the AFCON 2025. The reasons for his omission from the list remains quite unclear even until this day.
However, there have been several reports that has made the rounds suggesting that his omission was due to internal politics of the Cameroonian football. There have been claims that Cameroon Football FA President, Samuel Etoo was involved in his removal.
Vincent Aboubakar’s presence in the national team squad gives confidence and experience. With his absence from the squad, the younger players may be left without a leader who they look up to.
As a result, this could affect their chances of good going far into the tournament.
5. Nicolas Pépé
Nicolas Pépé is one of Ivory Coast’s top footballer especially in Europe. In addition, Nicolas Pépé has also represented the Ivory Coast national team in AFCON and World Cup qualifier tournaments.
In fact, he was one of the names excepted to be featured in the AFCON 2026 games but to the surprise of many, he was dropped.
Unlike some of the other footballers mentioned in this article, Nicolas Pépé wasn’t suffering from poor form or injury. It has been alleged that Nicolas Pépé omission from the AFCON 2025 was due to some controversial comments he made in a recent interview and video.
In his interview, he joked about another African country’s AFCON history and made comments about dual-nationality players. In fact, Ivory Coast national team coach also hinter that the interview also influenced his removal from the squad. He stated that the decision to exclude Pépé was not purely based on football, but also on off-field factors.
Without Pépé, Ivory Coast loses winger who can score long-range goals and also create chances out of nothing. His creativity will be missed by Ivory Coast as they would be looking to defend their championship going into the AFCON 2025 games.
Conclusion
The AFCON 2025 promises to be a banger. As usual, it is a competition that would test the squad depth of nations along with their quality. Despite the absence of these key players for their national team, the competition would be a testing ground for players who would replace them. Only time would tell who would eventually come out victorious. Let the best team win.