Ethiopia Are the Early Birds at AFCON 2021

The delegation from Ethiopia is the first to land in Cameroon among the 23 teams expected to join the hosts at the Africa Cup of Nations expected to begin on January 9.

The Wallas of Ethiopians arrived Yaounde yesterday and moments later had a feel of the Ahmadou Ahdijo Stadium.

They are expected to open their Africa Cup of Nations account with a clash with Cape Verde on 9 January at the Stade d’Olembe in Yaounde.

They are in Group A along with the hosts, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Cape Verde.

The team will open its AFCON campaign on the opening day of the tournament against Cape Verde. The match comes up after the competition opener between host, Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and the Stallion of Burkina Faso at same stadium.

This will be their first outing in the tournament since the participation at the 2013 edition when Super Eagles won the event in South Africa. Interestingly they were in same group with Nigeria but failed to go beyond the Group phase.

The Ethiopia’s head coach Wubetu Abate, had named a 25-man squad ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2021 last week.

“We have picked a strong team that should be able to perform well at the tournament in Cameroon,” said Abate.

The squad is dominated by locally based players featuring in the Ethiopian Premier League with only two abroad based players in Shemeles Bekele (El Gouna, Egypt) and Mujib Kassim (JS Kabilye, Algeria).

Bekele together with Getaneh Kebede and goalkeeper Jemal Tasew are the only three players who were part of Ethiopia’s team in their last appearance at the 2013 AFCON held in South Africa.

The Walia Ibex will the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon at the same Stadium on January 13th in their second group match. They will play their last Group match against Burkina Faso on January 17th.

AFCON 2021 will be their 12th appearance in the tournament.

Squad

Goalkeepers: Tekelemariam Shanko (Sidama Coffee), Fasil Gebre Michael (Bahir Dar City), Jemal Tasew (Adama City)

Defenders: Ramadan Yesuf (Wolkite City), Desta Yohannes (Adama City), Asrat Tunjo (Ethiopian Coffee), Suleman Hamid (Saint George), Yared Bayeh (Fasil Kenema), Aschalew Tamene (Fasil Kenema), Megnot Debebe (Saint George), Menaf Awol (Bahir Dar City)

Midfielders: Amanuel Yohannes (Ethiopian Coffee), Menaf Fitsum Alemu (Bahir Dar City), Gatouch Panom (Saint George), Mesoud Mohammed (Jima Aba Jifar), Shemeles Bekele (El Gouna, Egypt) , Firew Solomon (Sidama Coffee), Bezabeh Meleyo (Fasil Kenema)

Forwards: Abubeker Nasser (Ethiopian Coffee), Getaneh Kebede ( Wolkite City), Amanuel Gebre Michael (Saint George), Mesfin Tafesse (Hawasa City), Dawa Hotessa (Adama City), Shemeket Gugesa (Fasil Kenema), Mujib Kassim ( JS Kabilye, Algeria)