CAN 2024: “I was good for retirement”, the crazy story of a former unemployed person who became the competition’s top scorer

Emilio Nsue. MAXPPP – Simon Galloway

Le meilleur buteur de la CAN joue en 3e division espagnole: l'Équato-Guinéen Emilio Nsue (5 buts) atteint la plénitude dans une sélection où il avait été "accueilli comme un Dieu", après un parcours personnel tortueux entre l'Angleterre, Chypre et 16 mois de chômage.

"To tell my son tomorrow that I was top scorer in the African Cup ahead of Salah, Mané and Osimhen& quot;, tells the Intercity Alicante player to the sports site Relevo.com, before trying to win a second quarter-final in a row, Sunday (6:00 p.m.) against Guinea.

A hat-trick against Guinea-Bissau (4-2) and a double against Ivory Coast (4-0) allowed the striker and captain to take ahead of its competitors with a more prestigious pedigree than its own.

5 – Emilio Nsue a marqué 5 buts dans cette phase de groupes de la Coupe d’Afrique des Nations 2023, seul Laurent Pokou a fait mieux lors d’une même phase de poules dans l'histoire de la CAN (7 avec la Côte d'Ivoire en 1970). Goleador. #CAN2023 pic.twitter.com/YRlA3DPzsJ

— OptaJean (@OptaJean) January 22, 2024

Trained in Majorca, where he started, this son of a Spanish mother and an Equatorial Guinean father then traveled widely, from Middlesbrough (England) to Tuzla (Bosnia) via the & #39;APOEL Nicosia (Cyprus). But he has rarely experienced such exposure.

"At 34, I feel better than ever", he assures. Nsue, already a semi-finalist at home in 2015, is also happy to take his personal revenge on the CAN two years ago in Cameroon, which he had approached when he was unemployed.

"I was without a team for 6 months"

"I was without a team for six months", he says. "I had a very big family problem and I trained alone. At the CAN, I didn't make a fool of myself, but I was at the limit. I wasn't feeling well physically. This moment was very hard. When a whole country expects so much from you and you see that you are not giving it to them and you know that you cannot give it".

🗣💬 Mickaël Poté, ex-international béninois : "Cette #CAN2023 est une leçon d'humilité. Le meilleur buteur de la compétition, c'est l'Équatoguinéen Emilio Nsue. J'ai joué avec lui à l'Apoel Nicosie et il était latéral ! C'est un guerrier, un leader en termes de combativité" pic.twitter.com/7fa7tuURSO

— After Foot RMC (@AfterRMC) January 23, 2024

"I am very motivated, this African Cup that I experienced so badly gave me strength to believe that I couldn't fail at this one, that I had to come away with a better taste in my mouth. Besides, this might be my last African Cup, confides Nsue.

This year, success is on his side. In 2022 "when I had an opportunity I missed it, today I put it". After the hat-trick against Guinea-Bissau "I was a star and during the previous African Cup, I was good for retirement . That’s football. All professionals experience it".

"As if I was Cristiano Ronaldo"

But in Equatorial Guinea, "I feel loved", he specifies.

Emilio Nsue. MAXPPP – David Davies

"My father always told me about the Guinea team", rewinds Nsue, European under-19 and U23 champion with Spain. "At one point, at 21 years old, Guinea took me very seriously by offering me to represent my father's country, which is also mine by its roots, by blood, by family".

He began with a hat-trick against Cape Verde (4-3), a match ultimately lost on the green carpet (3-0)… because Nsue did not yet have all the necessary documents to play for the "Nzalang Nacional" (The National Lightning).

But he received the armband from his second selection.

3 – Agé de 34 ans et 110 jours, Emilio Nsue de la Guinée Equatoriale est le joueur le plus âgé de l'histoire de la CAN à inscrire un triplé. Historique. #EQGGNB pic.twitter.com/XZ0UZHxdiI

— OptaJean (@OptaJean) January 18, 2024

In 2013, "I was playing in the first division with Mallorca and they welcomed me at the airport as if I&#39 ;was Cristiano Ronaldo. That a La Liga player came to play for Equatorial Guinea, who at that time was losing every match, they thanked me a lot. There, I really felt like a god".

"I am very grateful and very happy for what I have experienced these twelve years. Equatorial Guinea has given me a lot and continues to give me, concludes Nsue, who still has goals to offer.