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Which records and milestones have been set at the 2023 AFCON so far?
Arguably the most exciting Africa Cup of Nations tournament has not been without its own intriguing milestones and records, with several countries and individuals going above and beyond to write their names in AFCON history.
AFCON 2023 Golden Boot race
The race for the Golden boot has taken a different dimension since the knockout rounds with current top top scorer Emilio Nsue getting knocked out in the round of 16 with Equatorial Guinea after missing a crucial penalty.
Egyptian forward Mostapha Mohamed became the first player from his country to score in all the first four games of an AFCON tournament, but he was unable to stop the Pharaohs from getting knocked out by Cape Verde.
The current active highest goalscorer is Angola’s Gelson Dala, who has also scored four goals, and fellow Palancas Negras star Mabululu has also scored three goals, making them the most dangerous duo at the tournament.
Most goals at a single AFCON tournament
The high-scoring nature of AFCON 2023 has been one of the major talking points of the tournament, with the 105 goals scored before the quarterfinals are the most ever recorded in a single AFCON tournament.
At 2.39 goals per game, AFCON 2023 has seen the most goals on average at a tournament for at least a decade, with the 2010 AFCON at 2.45 goals per game the last tournament to record scoring at a frequency this high.
Most penalties at a single AFCON tournament
One of the most frequent types of goals at AFCON has been strikes from the penalty spot, which account for 11.4% of all goals at the tournament.
There have been a total of 12 penalty goals at AFCON 2023 minus penalty shootouts, making this the AFCON tournament with the most spot kicks scored since the competition’s inception. .
Most score draws in AFCON history
The attacking nature of the 2023 AFCON has created multiple records, and in addition to the most goals for a single campaign, this year’s edition has also recorded the most matches with both teams scoring at least one goal.
With a record 17 draws in 44 matches, the 2023 AFCON has also seen at least one goal in every single game in the tournament.
Other records set at AFCON 2023
There have also been several niche records at the tournament, with Cape Verde winning their first-ever knockout match in an AFCON competition, while all eight quarterfinalists share the distinction of being a completely different set of countries from the last edition of AFCON.
Burkina Faso defender Edmond Tapsoba suffered the ignominy of scoring the earliest own goal in AFCON history with his unfortunate goal after only 2 minutes and 12 seconds against Mali. It was also the first-ever own goal scored against Mali in AFCON.
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