The President of Senegal’s football association, Augustin Senghor, has said that he was baffled by the country’s continuing failure to win a maiden Africa Cup of Nations title.
Senegal were eliminated on penalties by Cameroon on Saturday as they contested their first quarter-final in 11 years.
“It is very difficult to understand why Senegalese football cannot win when you see the generation we had in the past and now,” Senghor told Tidesports source.
“It is a very great equation for us.”
Senegal, the highest-rated side in Africa by world governing body Fifa, had been tipped by many to win this year’s competition in Gabon.
The Teranga Lions’ sole appearance in a Nations Cup final came in 2002 when they were beaten on penalties by Cameroon after the game had ended goalless.
Players such as two-time African Footballer of the Year El Hadji Diouf, playmaker Khalilou Fadiga and the country’s record scorer Henri Camara were all part of the side, which would reach the World Cup quarter-finals later that year.
Saturday night’s match in the eastern city of Franceville was similar to the 2002 final, after also ending goalless, but this time it fell to Africa’s most expensive player – Sadio Mane of Liverpool – to miss the vital spot-kick.
The 24-year-old was inconsolable after Vincent Aboubakar sent four-time champions Cameroon through shortly after.
“Some of the players were crying in the dressing room and we understand that,” Senghor said.
“They were very deeply affected and are suffering very greatly. It was very difficult to find the right words to say to them.
“Mane was one of the players crying and you can understand. It is a kind of curse on the great players that they miss penalties in shoot-outs, and Sadio is the same.
“He was very, very upset.”
Mane’s effort was blocked by Cameroon’s star player, goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa, sparking huge celebrations as the Indomitable Lions reached the last four for the first time since 2008 (when they lost the final to Egypt).
“He is sad but it is only natural,” striker Moussa Sow had said.
“He wanted to do something good and give pleasure to his nation. Sadio is a great player.”
Senegal were looking to reach the semi-finals for the fourth time, having last managed to do so in 2006.
“We were supposed to go further in this competition because the team played very well in the group phase,” said Senghor of the first team to qualify for the knock-out stage.