Softfootball understands that the 2025 AFCON closing between Senegal and Morocco might be remembered for drama, controversy, and a defining second of management. Senegal defeated Morocco 1-0 in further time, with Idrissa Gueye scoring the decisive aim. Nevertheless, the match nearly spiralled into chaos earlier than further time.
Morocco was awarded a penalty late in regulation, and Senegal’s head coach and a number of other gamers briefly left the pitch, feeling the refereeing choices have been unfair. It was solely due to Sadio Mane’s calm intervention that the workforce returned to proceed the sport.
Brahim Diaz, stepping up for Morocco, tried a Panenka, however Senegal goalkeeper Édouard Mendy saved it, additional fuelling debate on-line. Diaz later shared an emotional apology to Moroccan supporters, which generated widespread reactions on social media.
In a current podcast episode shared by Rio Meets Podcast through their official X account, former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand and Joey Baya mentioned the occasions, emphasising Sadio Mane’s position in preserving the integrity of African soccer.
Watch the video beneath:
Joey Baya requested:
Have you ever ever seen something like that in soccer? Sure or no?
Ferdinand responded, highlighting how a participant’s management can affect each the result of a recreation and the repute of a continent’s soccer.
He stated:
Not a recreation of that magnitude, not a recreation of that measurement, a closing, an AFCON closing. African soccer was in danger. African soccer’s credibility was in danger the second the Senegal workforce went down that tunnel. Whether or not they have been proper or flawed of their beliefs, they thought they have been being cheated or no matter, proper? To stroll off a pitch like that primarily based on a call that’s being made ain’t going to look proper. However Sadio Mane saved African soccer. Not Senegalese soccer, he saved African soccer as a result of he went and acquired his workforce down from out of that tunnel and stated, hear guys, what we’re not lose, you’ve to come back out and play, man. I favored Sadio Mane earlier than. We had him on a Rio Meats episode. In the event you haven’t seen it, go and watch it. I favored him. This load right here on the Afcon has made me simply completely love him as a result of he’s as a human and as a footballer.
Ferdinand’s remark framed Mané not simply as a top-class participant however as a frontrunner who prevented a possible scandal that might have tainted African soccer’s repute. In the meantime, the sport itself remained a landmark for Senegal, who lifted the AFCON trophy, and a second of reflection for Morocco and Brahim Diaz.
