There have been 15 African Cup winners since its beginning in February 1957. The tournament remains the biggest football competition in Africa and Egypt has won the most titles (7) and has broken several other records such as scoring the first goal since its inception, winning the first cup, and has the most number of appearances.
At present, Cameroon has the highest goalscorer ever in the tournament, Egypyt has the first player to score a hat-trick, Ivory Coast has the player to win the most goals in a single game, while Ghana is the first country to win the tournament 3 times and was permanently awarded the Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem Trophy (1978).
The competition which is sanctioned by Confederation of African Football (CAF) started with only 3 countries: Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia and has now extended to more than 20 countries.
Here are all the teams that have won the competition, the number of times and years won, winning coaches, and records broken since 1957.
Egypt (1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008, 2010)
Egypt's Winning Details
- Won Against: Ethiopia (1957), Sudan (1959), Cameroon (1986), South Africa (1998), Ivory Coast (2006), Cameroon (2008), Ghana (2010)
- Winning goals: 4-0; 2-1; 5-4 (penalty); 2-0; 4-2 (penalty); 1-0; 1-0
- Winning coaches: Mourad Fahmy, Pál Titkos, Mike Smith, Mahmoud El-Gohary, Hassan Shehata (3x)
- Record
- Won the first ever goal in the Africa Cup of Nations (Raafat Attia)
- Won the first African Cup Tournament
- The country with the most number of appearances in AFCON
- The country with the highest number of titles (7)
- Consecutive title wins (2006, 2008, 2010)
- Fastest Goals (1st minute: Hassan El-Shazly (1974); Ayman Mansour (1994))
Ethiopia (1962)
Ethiopia's Winning Details
- Won Against: United Arab Republic (Egypt) (1962)
- Winning goals: 4-2 (extra time)
- Winning Coaches: Ydnekatchew Tessema
- Records
- 1962 Top goal scorer and Most Valuable Player (Mengistu Worku)
Ghana (1963, 1965, 1970, 1982 )
Ghana's Winning Details
- Won Against: Sudan (1962), Tunisia (1965), Uganda (1978), Libya (1982)
- Winning goals: 3-0; 3-2(extra time); 2-0; 7-6 (penalty)
- Winning Coaches: Charles Gyamfi (3) and Fred Osam-Duodu (1)
- Records
- Won 2 consecutive titles (1963)
- 1965 Top scorer (Osei Kofi & Ben Acheampong) Most Valuable Player (Osei Kofi)
- 1978 Top scorer Opoku Afriyie) and Most Valuable Player (Karim Abdul Razak)
- 1982, 2013, 2015 Top scorers (George Alhassan, Mubarak Wakaso, Andre Ayew)
- 2015 Most Valuable Player (Christian Atsu)
DR Congo (1968, 1974)
DR Congo's Winning Details
- Won Against: Ghana, Zambia
- Winning goals: 1-0; 2-0 (replay)
- Winning Coaches: Ferenc Csanadi
- Records
- Most Valuable Player (Kazadi Mwamba)
- Have one of the top goal scorers of the tournament (Ndaye Mulamba, 10 goals)
- Won the first title as Congo-Kinshasa and the second as Zaire
Sudan (1970)
Sudan's Winning Details
- Won Against: Ghana
- Winning goals: 1-0
- Winning Coaches: Jiří Starosta (1970)
- Records
- Won 2nd runner-up twice (1959, 1963) and third place once (1957)
- Hosted the first Africa Cup (1957)
Republic of the Congo (1972)
Republic's Winning Details
- Won Against: Mali
- Winning goals: 3-2
- Winning Coaches: Adolphe Bibanzoulou
- Records
- Won 1972 Most Valuable Player (François M’Pelé)
Morocco (1976)
Morocco's Winning Details
- Won Against: Guinea (1976)
- Winning goals: 1-1
- Winning Coaches: Gheorghe Mărdărescu
- Records
- Won the 1976 and 1988 Most Valuable Player (Ahmed Faras, Aziz Bouderbala)
- 1980 Top Scorer (Khaled Labied, 6)
- Hosted its first AFCON in 1988
Nigeria (1980, 1994, 2013)
Nigeria's Winning Details
- Won Against: Algeria (1980), Zambia (1994), Burkina Faso (2013)
- Winning goals: 3-0 (1980), 2-1 (1994) 1-0
- Winning Coaches: Otto Glóri (2x), Stephen Keshi
- Records
- Won the AFCON championship the first time the country hosted and also won the MVP (Christian Chukwu) and Top scorer (Segun Odegbami) the same year (1980)
- Has the 3rd highest AFCON goalscorer (Rashidi Yekini, 13 goals)
Cameroon (1984, 1988, 2000, 2002, 2017)
Cameroon's Winning Details
- Won Against: Nigeria (1984, 1988, 2000), Senegal
- Winning goals: 3-1, 1-0, 4-3 (penalty), 3-2 (penalty)
- Winning Coaches: Radivoje Ognjanović, Claude Le Roy, Pierre Lechantre, Winfried Schäfer, Hugo Broos
- Records
- The country with the second highest number of titles
- Has the highest goalscorer of the tournament (Samuel Eto’o, 18 goals)
- Has received the title of the Most Valuable
- One of the only 3 countries to win the tournament in 2 consecutive years
Algeria (1990, 2019)
Algeria's Winning Details
- Won Against: Nigeria (1990), Senegal (2019)
- Winning goals: 1-0, 1-0
- Winning Coaches: Abdelhamid Kermali, Djamel Belmadi
- Record Set:
- Won all 3 titles of the tournament the same year the country hosted (African Cup Champion, highest goalscorer (Djamel Menad) MVP (Rabah Madjer)
Ivory Coast (1992)
Ivory Coast's Winning Details
- Won Against: Ghana (1992, 2015),
- Winning goals: 11-10 (penalty), 9-8 (penalty)
- Winning Coaches: Yeo Martial, Hervé Renard
- Records:
- Played and won the most number of penalties in the tournament (11-0; 9-8)
South Africa (1996)
South Africa's Winning Details
- Won Against: Tunisia
- Winning goals: 2-0
- Winning Coaches: Clive Barker
- Records:
- Won the tournament the same year the country hosted the game
- It hosted for the second time in 2013
Tunisia (2004)
Tunisia's Winning Details
- Won Against: Morocco
- Winning goals: 2-1
- Winning Coaches: Roger Lemerre
- Records:
- The country won the Cup of Nations the same year it hosted and also won the top goalscorer (Francileudo Santos, 4) for the first time in the same year
- Won its second goalscorer in 2015 (Ahmed Akaïchi)
- Has the most consecutive appearances (15) (1994-2021)
Zambia (2012)
Zambia's Winning Details
- Won Against: Ivory Coast (2012)
- Winning goals: 8-7 (penalty)
- Winning Coaches: Hervé Renard
- Records:
- Won the title of the Most Valuable Player twice (Kalusha Bwalya (1996) Christopher Katongo (2012))
See Also: Youssef En-Nesyri 10 Interesting Facts About The Moroccan Football Star
Senegal (2021)
Senegal's Winning Details
- Won Against: Egypt
- Winning goals: 4-2 (penalty)
- Winning Coaches: Aliou Cissé
Other Records That Have Been Set
African Cup Nation's Winning Details
- Samuel Eto’o (Cameroonean) is the top goalscorer in Africa with 18 total goals in 6 tournaments (2000 (4), 2002 (1), 2004 (1), 2006 (5), 2008 (5), 2010 (2))
- André Ayew (Ghanaian) has played the most number of games in the African Cup of Nations with a total of 34 matches (2008-2021)
- Raafat Attia (died in 1974) (Egyptian) scored the first goal of the tournament in 1957 at the age of 34
- Ad-Diba (Egyptian) (died in 2016) was the first player to score a hat-trick in an Africa Cup of Nations (4 goals against Ethiopia in 1957); he was 30 at the time
- Hassan El-Shazly (Egyptian) (died in 2015) scored the most hat tricks
- Hossam Hassan (Egyptian) is the oldest goalscorer in the tournament (2006); he was 39 years old
- Shiva N’Zigou (Gabonese) is the youngest goalscorer (16 years) in the African Cup of Nations (2000)
- Fastest goalscorers (1st minute)
- Hassan El-Shazly (Egyptian, 1974)
- Chérif Fetoui (Moroccan, 1976)
- Philip Omondi (Ugandan, 1978)
- Tueba Menayame (Zaire (now part of Congo), 1992)
- Ayman Mansour (Egyptian, 1994)
- Tijani Babangida (Nigerian, 2000)
- Soufiane Alloudi (Moroccan, 2008)
- Latest Goal
- Bruno Zita Mbanangoye (Gabonese, 2012 (regulation time: 90+10))
- Brighton Sinyanwe (Zambian, 1974 (including extra time: 120th minute))
- Jaouad Zairi (Moroccan, 2004: 120th minute)
- Laurent Pokou (Ivorean) scored the most goals (5) in a single game (1970)
- Ndaye Mulamba (Zaire no DR Congo) scored the most goals in a tournament (1974)
- Sudan was the first host of the tournament
- Ghana became the first country to win the tournament 3 times and was permanently awarded the Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem Trophy (1978)
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