Loosing +1: when dreaming becomes a crime
“Atassa”, this word that denotes a certain stupefaction and astonishment in Beninese slang, would not be enough to describe this new frustration and disillusion experienced by an entire people. The cause of this malaise: a Nigeria that is too strong football-wise, which keeps, match after match, humiliating the Benin national football team. And on October 14, 2025 this was, once again, an example among many: a lesson in football turning into humiliation and once again denying Benin participation in a World Cup. From then on, a whole nation in tears continues to wonder how and when it will finally be able to take part in a World Cup.
2026, another disappointment
Since the creation of its football federation, and despite the renaming of its national team, Benin has never enjoyed consistency on the international stage. Waves: that’s what this team’s performances could be compared to.
Good one day and catastrophic the next, the Benin national team clearly seems to struggle to maintain a steady course. A team with a strong pool of talent at every level, but which still struggles, to this day, to find its formula. Consequence: a succession of frustrations and disillusion among the Beninese population.
Every time, Benin is the nation that surprises everyone by being on the verge of pulling off a feat, but it always ends up being undone by the realization of an improbable defeat.
Benin, a victim of a “twist of fate”?
2010, 2021, 2022, 2023 and finally 2025: all these years have one thing in common – the “twist of fate”. The “twist of fate” refers to an unexpected and unpredictable event that occurs without an identifiable cause, often perceived as a blow of destiny or a coincidence. And when you look more closely at those dates, you wonder whether it is not this that strikes the Benin national team.
Indeed, every time Benin is on the verge of qualifying for a major football competition, it runs into either a neighbor that is too strong, or a direct rival who eliminates them with disconcerting ease. Whether it’s Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone or Mozambique, Benin has never managed to pull through at the crucial moments – not out of incompetence, but because of poor handling of those decisive moments.
Is it a twist of fate? Yes, if you recall the moments of those dramas. In fact, in each of those cases Benin only needed a win or a draw to hope to qualify for the major competitions in question. Unfortunately, it failed to do so, seeming condemned to be a victim of such twists of fate.
Eyes turned to AFCON 2025 and the 2030 World Cup
Despite the bitter disappointment against Nigeria, Benin still holds onto hope and continues to believe in its national team.
The Guépards will have the chance to show their claws at AFCON 2025 on Moroccan soil. Led by an excellent Steve Mounié and the incredible “ATASSA-BOY” of the Bundesliga, Andréas Hountondji, the Guépards will have the opportunity to bring smiles back to a nation in tears, deprived of the American dream of 2026.
For this celebration of African football, the Guépards will have to give their all against fierce and determined opponents in their group: among them Senegal and DR Congo – two nations whose clashes with Benin will carry a taste of revenge – and finally Botswana, the group’s main outsider.
It is also an opportunity to reach out to a new golden generation of Beninese footballers and, perhaps, hope that by 2030 this team finally gets to taste the World Cup.