President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrice Motsepe, has stated that the continent's dream of producing a world champion is closer to reality than ever before following Morocco's semi final run at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The North Africans became the first African country to make the semi finals of the World Cup and finished 4th in Qatar.

Speaking at the 2022 CAF Outstanding Achievement Award held in Kigali, Rwanda, Motsepe said Morocco's fairytale run given him real belief that an African country can win the World Cup in the near future.

Morocco at the 2022 World Cup made history, the national team of Morocco was not just playing for the people of Morocco, but the entire Africa.”

“Their historic performance and success is an encouragement, is a motivation for everyone on the African continent.”

“Africa has got a proud history of producing some of the best players we have seen at the highest level in football, in Europe and elsewhere.”

“One of our main objective is to make sure that in the near future, a nation from Africa will be victorious at the highest level in the world and be champions of the FIFA World Cup.”

Africa will have 9 countries representing at the 2026 World Cup after FIFA expanded the competition from 32 teams to 48 teams for the tournament to be joint hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico.