Eclectic cast rubbing shoulders with superstars at Cup of Nations

ABIDJAN : Stars like Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Victor Osimhen are the headline acts at the Africa Cup of Nations but they rub shoulders at the tournament with journeymen who, for a fleeting week or two, get to enjoy an extraordinary opportunity.

The African championship boasts an increasingly eclectic cast of characters, particularly in recent decades with the expansion of the tournament to 24 teams, with many countries searching for talent beyond their shores.

It means a musician playing football in his spare time was among the more than 600 footballers at the tournament in the Ivory Coast, along with a player who was delivering takeaways just months ago and another who was first contacted on LinkedIn.

Mozambique striker Stanley Ratifo, whose side were eliminated on Monday, has returned to Pforzheim where he plays in the fifth tier of German football.

The son of a Mozambican contract worker in the former East Germany, he was born in Halle, but gave up on his dream of becoming a professional player at FC Cologne, where he made it to the fringes of the first team but was never offered a deal.

He had a music career to fall back on, however, and took up work with a label based in Pforzheim, in the south west of Germany. He has almost 9,000 listeners a month on Spotify, and his best-known song “PradaShades” has 224,000 streams.

“But the passion for football didn’t let me go,” he explained, so he went to the local club and asked to train and was promptly asked to join.

Once back playing regularly, he approached Mozambique. They invited him to come and play and he scored on his debut.

Now he trains daily, plays music at night and every few months goes off on international duty.

“I can walk across the street in Germany and no