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Claim: An X user claims the last three Afcon winners included the Nigerian Men’s Football team.
Verdict: False. Data from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) shows that the last three titles have been won by Algeria, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast, respectively.
Full Text
The African Cup of Nations 2025 ended with a 120-minute thriller between Senegal and Morocco, which was filled with everything a good football game was expected to bring.
The beauty of the final game was nearly marred when the Senegalese team walked off the pitch in protest of a 98th-minute penalty awarded to Morocco. Calm was restored, and they decided to come back to finish the game. The drama didn’t stop. Morocco’s Brahmin Diaz missed the last-minute spot kick to the shock of the home fans.
Senegal scored in the first half of extra time and eventually lifted the trophy for the second time in the history of the West African nation.
Amidst various social media posts concerning the final game, an X user, @_ezeokolorie, claims that Senegal, Nigeria, and the Ivory Coast were the winners of the prestigious tournament in the last three tournaments.
“The last three AFCON titles have been won by West Africa: Senegal, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast, always making the region proud,” he wrote in a post that has garnered 157,000 views on X.
As of Jan. 20, 2026, the post had also attracted 8,800 likes, 764 reposts, and 120 books.
DUBAWA decided to investigate due to its virality and its efforts to curb misinformation associated with football tournaments.
Verification
To investigate this claim, DUBAWA checked the archives of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The records indicate that, before the recent Morocco 2025, the last three editions of the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) were held in 2019, 2021, and 2023 (2024).
The Afcon 2019 was initially scheduled to be hosted in Cameroon. However, Cameroon was stripped of the hosting rights due to infrastructure delays. Egypt was handed the hosting mandate, which saw Algeria as champions after beating Senegal 1- 0.
In a comeback, Senegal won their first continental title at the Afcon 2021 by beating Egypt 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 draw in the final, played in Yaounde, Cameroon. Senegal were the champions of the Afcon 2021.
Again, the continental tournament, Afcon 2023 (which was held in 2024), in Cote d’Ivoire saw the host nation win the trophy in a thrilling 2-1 comeback win over Nigeria in Abidjan in February 2024.
Deductively, before the recent Morocco 2025 Afcon, the last three Afcon winners are Algeria, Senegal, and Cote d’Ivoire in the 2019, 2021, and 2023 editions, respectively.
Conclusion
The claim that the last three Afcon winners included Nigeria is false. CAF records indicate that the last three winners are Algeria, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire.
