He was declared the winner, but he was still playing against the grain. Officials at the Stade de France were formally notified, Senegal was threatened with reprisals if the AFCON trophy was displayed, and now, the anger of Moroccan fans has turned against their compatriots who dared to "like" the Lions of Teranga's social media posts celebrating their victory. The final blow in this saga came on March 30th: the appeals court extended the ordeal of the Senegalese fans unjustly detained since January 18th.

“To win without peril is to triumph without glory,” said Pierre Corneille in “Le Cid.” This perfectly sums up the situation. Promising a trophy that will never be lifted is a monumental blunder. Declaring Morocco the winner when the cup remains in Dakar is “madness you only see at the Africa Cup of Nations,” to quote Ousmane Dembélé, the 2025 Ballon d’Or winner. Morocco is not a fallen king: it is a winner without a trophy, without a medal, and without a prize.

Ibrahim Mbaye reminded a nearly stunned Hakimi, who had come to inform his young PSG teammate that Morocco had been declared African champions. "The cup is in Dakar, and we're keeping our medals," retorted Senegal's number 27 with irony worthy of a well-placed free kick. Victory had been handed to them on a silver platter, and every scenario had been planned to crown the country that football expert and Canal+ pundit Geoffrey Garretti describes as a "future giant of world football." But Senegalese pride thwarted Faouzi Lekjaa's megalomaniacal dreams.

Senegal knows how to keep pace. Even in times of economic crisis, its people know how to overcome divisions to defend the national colors. In sports, and particularly in football, unity prevails. Pascal Boniface, a French geopolitical expert, affirms: "Sport strengthens national identities." Today, Morocco is firing on all cylinders, burned by its own ambition. Vincent Duluc, editorialist and head of the football section at L'Équipe, emphasized this point: the Kingdom of Morocco is the worst loser in football history. The country that wanted to use the Africa Cup of Nations as a springboard for its bid to host the 2030 World Cup has found itself sidelined since January 18th, caught in the twists and turns of history.

Football is a game of passions and controversies: from the phantom goal that made England champions in 1966, to Maradona's "Hand of God" in 1986, to Thierry Henry's handball in 2009 that qualified France for the 2010 World Cup, not forgetting Frank Lampard's disallowed goal in 2010. The history of this sport has always been marked by disputes. But one must know how to "turn the page," as Carlo Ancelotti reminds us in "The Quiet Leader" (March 2017). Something that the Atlas Lions don't seem willing to do since that Africa Cup of Nations final.

Babacar Guèye DIOP