Kenya to face defending champions Senegal in AFCON U20 Championships
.jpg)
Reading Time: 2min | Thu. 13.02.25. | 16:00
Rising Stars secured their first trip to the competition after finishing runners-up in the CECAFA Qualifiers last October
Kenya U20 national football team - Rising Stars - will have a meeting with defending champions Senegal in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Under 20 championships set for 26 April - 18 May in Ivory Coast.
In a Thursday afternoon draw ceremony in Cairo, debutants Kenya were placed in the competition’s Group C, where they will face the 2023 champions Senegal, 2017 winners Zambia, and first-timers Sierra Leone.
As per the draw format, the top two teams from the group will qualify automatically to the knock-out stages, with two of the best third-placed sides also advancing.
A total of 13 teams will be in the competition, which also serves as a qualifier for the 2025 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, to be held in Chile from September 27 to October 19, 2025.
This will be the first time Kenya will be stepping foot in the championships that have a long history dating back 46 years, after only playing at such a level in 1979, when the competition was then known as the African Youth Championship.
Under Salim Babu, Kenya made history by qualifying for the tournament after finishing runners-up in the CECAFA Qualifiers in October.
And in what could be a baptism of fire, the Rising Stars will have to find a way past the Young Lions of Senegal, who under coach Serigne Saliou Dia, scooped their second consecutive WAFU A title in September last year.
The 2023 champions will be also be bolstered by presence of the history-making squad that won the U17 AFCON two years ago.
Though making it to the tournament for the first time, Sierra Leone will also not be a walk in the park, as they were the team that pushed Senegal in the WAFU A final, ultimately losing 2-0.
Zambia, meanwhile, are the 2017 champions, and proved tough opposition against 1997 runners-up South Africa in the COSAFA finals early October.
Aside from Group C, neighboring Tanzania - the CECAFA Qualifiers winners - have been placed in Pool A, where they will come up against hosts Ivory Coast, four-time winners Ghana, and DR Congo.
The final team in Group A is yet to be confirmed, as Congo-Brazzaville serve a FIFA ban for third-party football interference.
The 'pool of death' however will see two of the most successful nations Egypt and Nigeria battle it out in Group B with 1997 winners Morocco and South Africa.
.jpg)
