Salomon Kalou picks favourites to win AFCON 2025

Former Ivory Coast international Salomon Kalou has picked his favourites to win the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) trophy in Morocco.

The 35th edition of the AFCON is scheduled to kick off in the North African nation from December 21 to January 18. It will be the first time that the tournament will be played over the Christmas and New Year period.

The tournament will bring together the best from African soil, the likes of Tunisia, who will partucpate for the 22nd time and extended their record for consecutive participations, reaching the tournament for the 17th time in a row, having not been absent since 1994.

Comoros, Gabon, Sudan and Zimbabwe will make their return to the continental tournament after missing out on 2023, Benin and Uganda make their return after an almost five-year absence from the event.

‘Morocco because they are home’

Meanwhile, Botswana will feature for the second time after their first participation in 2012.

“The hosting country is Morocco because they are home, and Nigeria because they are always there. You also have Cameroon, who always has a team to go far in the competition,” the former Chelsea striker told SABC Sport.

“In Bafana Bafana’s last competition, they finished third; they just qualified for the World Cup, and you see they are young players, they are developing, and I think they can be the favorites of this competition.”

Morocco will open the AFCON tournament against Comoros.