By Etienne Mainimo Mengnjo,
With just four playing days, the 2018/2019 LaLiga football season should be exciting for football fans based in Africa, as there are so many players from the continent that will be competing at the highest level in Spain.
In fact, 13 of the 20 LaLiga football teams have at least one African in their squad with some having several players. Morocco and Ghana have the most African players in the Spanish top division, with five each, considering that only eight other countries including Spain have more representatives.
Amongst the Moroccan contingent, there’s Real Betis defender Zouhair Feddal, Girona goalkeeper Yassine ‘Bono’ Bounou, Leganés forwards Nabil El Zhar and Youssef En-Nesyri. There’s also the 24-year-old attacking midfielder Sofiane Boufal, who arrived Celta Vigo after spending the past two seasons at Southampton.
As for the Ghanaian quintet, they are made up of Atlético Madrid’s Thomas Teye Partey, plus Alavés midfield duo Patrick Twumasi and Mubarak Wakaso, Levante strikers Raphael Dwamena and Emmanuel Boateng.
Another African nation with a significant presence in this year’s Spanish top division is Equatorial Guinea. National team striker Iban Salvador is at Celta Vigo, while Equato-guinean full-backs Sergio Akieme and Carlos Akapo will spend this season at newly promoted sides Rayo Vallecano and Huesca respectively.
The Senegalese contingent to keep an eye on too include Abdoulaye Ba, Pape Diop and Amath Ndiaye who have all joined new LaLiga clubs within the past year and they all became very important for their new sides in the 2017/18 season, with Ba helping Rayo Vallecano win promotion and with Diop and Ndiaye helping Eibar and Getafe with their respective battles for European football.
Cameroon is represented in LaLiga’s top tier division by Karl Toko Ekambi. From Angers FC in France, his new team describes him, “as one who stands out for his speed and goal scoring powers. At just 25 years of age, he has all the qualities to triumph in Spanish football" Ivorian striker, Seydou Doumbia joined the African LaLiga train following his move from Portuguese side, Sporting Lisbon to Girona on a three- year deal. The 30year old who has been capped thirty-nine times by his country was a member of the Elephants squad that won the 2015 African Cup of Nations.
Nigeria are also well-represented in LaLiga this time around as Leganés FC have signed the 24-year-old defender Chelsea’s Nigerian centre-back Kenneth Omeruo on loan for one season. Also in LaLiga is Moses Simon, the 23 year old Levante winger signed from Gent. He scored six times and provided three assists in the Belgian league last season.
In the Nigerian contingent is goalkeeper Francis Uzoho, who played every minute of Nigeria’s World Cup campaign.Still in the top-flight division one, there are some other African stars not yet mentioned who areworth looking out for as they come up against the likes of Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann andLuka Modrić in the coming season.
As far as the second division is concern, a number of African players are also present including Cameroonian duo Jean Marie Dongou and Serge Leuko, as well as Nigerian midfielder Ramon Azeez playing for Lugo FC. Gimnàstic de Tarragona have another Nigerian, in the form of striker Ikechukwu Uche, while Cameroonian defender Mohammed Djetei is also at the Catalan club.
Then there’s Almería’s Cameroonian defender Lucien Owona, Mallorca’s Ivorian forward Lago Junior and Elche’s Guinean forward Sory Kaba. Senegalese midfielder Pape Maly Diamanka and Ghanaian winger Yaw Yeboah are in Numancia FC.
Real Betis boast Algerian pair Aïssa Mandi and Ryad Boudebouz among their ranks while Cheick Doukouré of the Ivory Coast will be expected to step up and to take on more responsibility at Levante this year after they lost Jefferson Lerma in the transfer window. Togo international Djené Dakonam plays for Getafe and is one of the best centre-backs in the entire league, while big things are expected of his 20-year-old teammate Merveil Ndockyt, a Republic of the Congo midfielder with a bright future.
Elsewhere in Madrid, Rayo Vallecano will hope wingers Gaël Kakuta and Lass Bangoura of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and of Guinea respectively can score the goals to keep them up.
Over the course of the 2018/19 LaLiga campaign, there will be some mouth-watering clashes between international teammates from these African countries.
