Senegal. The pre-tournament read.

1. Al-Nassr · Forward

   Sadio Mané

   Captain, talisman, and the player every Senegal tournament since 2018 has been organised around. Missed Qatar 2022 with a fractured fibula sustained two weeks before the tournament; the 2026 World Cup is almost certainly his last as a starter.

2. Al-Hilal · Centre-back

   Kalidou Koulibaly

   Vice-captain, defensive leader, and the player AFCON 2021's tournament-winning back-line was built around. At 34, the senior voice in the dressing room and the spine of Thiaw's defensive structure.

3. Everton · Attacking midfield

   Iliman Ndiaye

   The post-Mané generation creator. France-born, Senegalese-raised at international level, the player Thiaw has trusted with playmaking duties since taking the job.

Agent-authored figures · needs verification before match-use.

1. 01 Sadio Mané · Al-Nassr6 g · 5 of 6
2. 02 Iliman Ndiaye · Everton4 g · 6 of 6
3. 03 Nicolas Jackson · Chelsea3 g · 5 of 6

1. 29 JAN 2024

   Eliminated by Ivory Coast (1-1, 4-5 pens) in the AFCON 2023 round of 16

   Senegal arrived as defending champions and went out to the eventual title-winning host. The result that ended the Cissé project and started the conversation that ended his tenure.

2. 27 AUG 2024

   Aliou Cissé's contract not renewed

   Ten years as Senegal head coach. Won the AFCON, reached two WC tournaments, and oversaw the country's first ever continental title. The federation went internal — and younger.

3. 13 SEPT 2024

   Pape Thiaw appointed as head coach

   Promoted from Cissé's staff. The brief was explicit: keep the AFCON 2021 system, change the dressing-room voice, navigate the 2026 cycle.

4. 15 NOV 2025

   Senegal 3-0 South Sudan — qualification confirmed

   Mané brace, Ndiaye assist hat-trick, Koulibaly captaining the back-line that has lost only once in CAF qualifying. The Thiaw system, by November, looked indistinguishable from the Cissé system.

5. 5 DEC 2025

   Drawn into Group I with France, Iraq, Norway

   France — the opponent Senegal beat 1-0 in the famous 2002 World Cup opening match — is the seeded test. Norway is Erling Haaland's first WC. Iraq are the intercontinental playoff winner. None of the three is a free hit.

• Senegal won the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations — the country's first ever continental title — beating Egypt on penalties in the Yaoundé final in February 2022.
• Senegal's deepest World Cup run was 2002, when they beat France 1-0 in the tournament's opening match in Seoul and reached the quarter-final before a golden-goal defeat to Turkey.
• Aliou Cissé managed Senegal for ten years (2015 to August 2024) — the longest single tenure of any African national-team head coach. His contract was not renewed after the AFCON 2023 round-of-16 exit on penalties to Ivory Coast.
• Group I pairs Senegal with France for the second time at a World Cup (after 2002). The two countries share a colonial-era history, decades of immigration, and a fixture that for Senegal is, structurally, the most-watched football match in the country.

1. 

   France

2. 

   Iraq

3. 

   Norway

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