Bastos: Angolan breaks new ground for Africa in Copa Libertadores final

The Copa Libertadores has been running since 1960, but African players are scarce on the ground – with competing sides largely composed of domestic talent.

As the injured Bastos missed Botafogo’s victory, the continent’s only representative to appear in the South American club final remains Ghana’s Prince Amoako.

The midfielder featured for Sporting Cristal in the second leg of the 1997 edition of the competition, which the Peruvian side lost 1-0 on aggregate to Cruzeiro of Brazil.

Given than players from Nigeria and Ghana featured in the early stages of the Libertadores this season, could this now open the floodgates for other Africans to feature in the tournament and emulate Bastos in lifting the trophy?

The answer from Vickery is “a guarded ‘perhaps'”.

“There are often a few Africans dotted around the lesser South American leagues, but for the most part, for the best African players most roads lead to Europe, with some going to the Middle East,” he explained.

“Emmanuel Adebayor was an exception, joining Olimpia of Paraguay for the 2020 Libertadores – an interesting experiment cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Brazil, though, is increasingly becoming a global competition, a kind of South American version of the Premier League.

“There were players from five different South American nations on the field in Saturday’s final, plus one coach from Argentina and another from Portugal.

“The likes of [Netherlands forward] Memphis Depay and [Denmark’s] Martin Braithwaite are now making their living in Brazil – and there seems no reason why they could not in the future be joined by some big-name Africans.”