World Cup 2022 - Roger Milla: "This is the right time to show that Africa has the best players"

The African continent and the football world are holding their breath. It is 12 days until the opening of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (20 November-18 December). Africa will be represented by Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia, Morocco and Ghana. And Roger Milla believes the continent will have its chances during the tournament. For the former Cameroon international, history is in the making.

"This is the right time to show that Africa has the best football players and the best teams in the world. We have to make our players understand that we can compete with the biggest teams. We have everything we need to compete with them. It is up to us to get to work. We struggled for a few years, but I have seen African football develop a lot. Now the time has come, and we will see in Qatar", Roger Milla told BBC Sport Africa.

Milla, a pioneer, hopes for better

Africa's best World Cup performance is reaching the quarter-finals: Senegal in 2002, Ghana in 2010. But before that, the Cameroon side of Roger Milla were the first African team to reach that stage of the competition, in 1990 in Italy. Milla, then aged 38, scored 4 goals. So when he speaks, people listen.

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"We are a continent with great footballers - we can go further than the quarter-finals. But I have always said that for an African country to win the World Cup, hard work [is needed] first. It is discipline and organisation. If we look at the other countries today, we are at their level in football, but now we must be well organised [too]. I am very happy that Cameroon led the way and showed the world that Africa has teams who can compete with the biggest in the world". The whole continent hopes that, at the World Cup in Qatar, Africa can break through the glass ceiling of the quarter-finals.