Equitorial Guinea enjoy their moment with W Cup trophy

Twenty-four African nations had by Tuesday had a chance to marvel at the Fifa World Cup trophy that is on tour around the world.

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The trophy landed in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea yesterday and will move to Sao Tome and Principe Islands tomorrow having traversed Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Egypt and Mali among other African nations.

The Trophy Tour, which began from the Fifa Headquarters on September 21 before moving to Cairo three days later, will traverse 89 cities in 86 countries.

It’s expected to land in the host country, South Africa, on May 4, next year. Kenya awaits its turn in anticipation on November 13, when the trophy is expected to land in Nairobi.

Star-studded line-up

Presidents and, on some occasions, Prime Ministers, have so far been the lucky few to hold football’s most valuable treasure. Nigerians prayed with the trophy for two days between October 21-22.

President Umaru Yar’Adua marvelled at the trophy and prayed that God would guide the Super Eagles - who are yet to qualify - to glory next year. Based on their inspiring performance at the 2006 World Cup and their current splendid form in the qualifiers, Didier Drogba’s Cote d’Ivoire are tipped to do well, perhaps even clinch the coveted trophy for Africa for the first time.

In the last finals in Germany, Cote d’Ivoire were pooled alongside Argentina and the Netherlands, but they ended up going down by identical 1-2 defeats before beating Serbia Montenegro 3-2.

Ranked 19th in the world, Cote d’Ivoire boast a star-studded line-up with most of their players turning out for top European clubs.

They include Kolo Toure (Manchester City), Yaya Toure (Barcelona), Salomon Kalou (Chelsea), Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal) and Didier Zokora (Sevilla) among many others.