Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Traore with Tp Mazembe
The Caf U-23 Africa Cup of Nation starts on Saturday with eight teams from the continent seeking tickets to qualify for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Nigeria and seven other teams will slug it out in Senegal, competing for the three slots available to Africa for next years’ event.
The teams are divided into two groups with hosts Senegal in Group A alongside South Africa, Zambia and Tunisia. Nigeria will contend with Mali, Egypt and Algeria in Group B which is arguably the group of death.
This is the first time the Olympic qualifiers will take this format and Nigeria will be looking to get back into the Olympics after the 1996 Atlanta Olympic champions failed to qualify for the last edition in London.
The ‘Dream Team’ will start their campaign on Sunday against West African neighbours Mali. There is a lot of history between both countries with the latest being Nigeria defeating Mali 2-0 to win the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in Chile early this month.
Mali comes into the tournament with a rich pedigree in youth football in Africa and they will hope to add the U23 title to the Africa U17 title which they wrapped up last February in Niger.
The ‘Aiglonettes will bring a strong batch of talented players lead by TP Mazembe’s Adama Traore who is being tipped for bigger things in years to come.
Not to be confused with his namesake at Aston Villa FC, Traore has been a rising star of Malian football for sometime now.
He has scored 15 goals since his move to TP Mazembe in 2014 and was instrumental to the DR Congo side lifting the CAF Champions League a few weeks back.
The attacking midfielder who can also play as a striker has alongside Thomas Ulimwengwu, Rainford Kalaba, Mbwana Sammata made TP Mazembe the number one club-side on the continent.
Traore will seek to continue on his success at TP Mazembe when the Mali U23 side take on Nigeria in their first group game at the Stade Caroline Faye in M’bour in on Sunday.
Samson Siasia and his side must be wary of the tall midfielder who has the potential to derail the Dream Team’s quest for a ticket to Rio 2016.