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Equatorial Guinea’s Emilio Nsue Outshining Star Names at Cup of Nations

Equatorial Guinea's Emilio Nsue, celebrates scoring his second goal during the African Cup of Nations Group A soccer match between Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea at the Olympic Stadium of Ebimpe in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. (AP)
Equatorial Guinea's Emilio Nsue, celebrates scoring his second goal during the African Cup of Nations Group A soccer match between Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea at the Olympic Stadium of Ebimpe in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. (AP)
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Equatorial Guinea’s Emilio Nsue Outshining Star Names at Cup of Nations

Equatorial Guinea's Emilio Nsue, celebrates scoring his second goal during the African Cup of Nations Group A soccer match between Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea at the Olympic Stadium of Ebimpe in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. (AP)
Equatorial Guinea's Emilio Nsue, celebrates scoring his second goal during the African Cup of Nations Group A soccer match between Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea at the Olympic Stadium of Ebimpe in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. (AP)

Victor Osimhen, Mohamed Salah or Sadio Mane were perhaps the most likely bets to be top marksman at this year's Africa Cup of Nations, but the entirely unexpected name leading the scorers' charts in Ivory Coast has more goals than all of them combined.

Emilio Nsue, the captain of unfancied Equatorial Guinea, goes into a last-16 tie with Guinea on Sunday after netting five times in the group stage.

If he keeps this up, he could break Ndaye Mulamba's record of nine in one AFCON for Zaire in 1974.

"I am ambitious, but to be honest I would sign a contract right now if it said I would be the top scorer," he smiled when that record was mentioned to him in an interview with AFP in Abidjan.

Nsue scored twice in a 4-0 win over the hosts in their final group game, having netted three in a 4-2 win over Guinea-Bissau, the first Cup of Nations hat-trick since 2008.

Ranked 18th in Africa, Equatorial Guinea -- population 1.7 million -- is no footballing hotbed.

But the Central African nation has made remarkable progress over the last decade, spurred on by hosting the AFCON in 2012 and again in 2015, when they reached the semi-finals.

'Strongest in all Africa'

The current side, under softly-spoken coach Juan Micha, is undefeated since June 2022.

"The most important thing, our strong point, is the group, because we are playing almost eight or nine years together, so we are brothers," Nsue said.

"We don't have any superstar, but as a group I think we are the strongest in all Africa."

Nsue is certainly the closest thing they have to a superstar.

Born in Mallorca, he was in a Spain squad that won the Under-21 Euro in 2011 alongside David de Gea, Juan Mata and Thiago Alcantara.

But he opted to represent the country of his father's birth at senior level, at a time when he was playing regularly in La Liga for Mallorca.

"Equatorial Guinea came to me and said: 'Please, you have to come. You are going to be the captain. You are young but we think you are the future'," said Nsue.

"So I thought about that and about everything my father explained to me."

He didn't enjoy the best start, scoring a hat-trick in a 4-3 win over Cape Verde in 2013, only for Equatorial Guinea to be handed a 3-0 defeat because Nsue was, in fact, ineligible.

Yet Nsue, who idolized Samuel Eto'o growing up when the Cameroon legend played for Mallorca, is now a hero in the country.

"The people of Equatorial Guinea are really grateful towards him because you can see how much he loves his country," Micha told AFP.

"It is incredible to have a person like him and I hope he stays with us for a long time."

Getting better with age

However, he will turn 35 this year, so could this be his last AFCON?

"My hero is Cristiano Ronaldo. He is older than me. I care a lot about my body. I like to eat healthily. So for me I don't think it's going to be my last one because I feel better than when I was 20," Nsue said.

Much has been made of his versatility, as a player who was turned into a wing-back by Aitor Karanka at Middlesbrough, where he won promotion to the Premier League in 2016.

"After that, all the coaches said to me I could play everywhere. So last year I played as a central defender, a right-back, striker, midfielder," he said.

"But with my national team, these 12 years, I have played as a striker. Almost all my life I have played as a striker."

Nsue was one of seven members of Equatorial Guinea's line-up against Ivory Coast who were born in Spain, the former colonial power.

He is now playing club football in Spain for third-tier Intercity of Alicante, who took Barcelona to extra time in the Copa del Rey last season.

Nsue is in no hurry to leave his current surroundings, even if his profile has been boosted at the AFCON.

"I'm very happy. I'm scoring goals. For me it is not all about football," he said.

"The life in Alicante is very nice, the weather, for me at 34 years old that is important.

"You never know, maybe tomorrow somebody comes with an offer you can't refuse, but I don't really think about that."

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Sudanese Olympic Backstroker Ziyad Saleem of California Looks to Leave His Mark on Paris Games

Ziyad Saleem poses in Berkeley, Calif., Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (AP)
Ziyad Saleem poses in Berkeley, Calif., Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (AP)
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Sudanese Olympic Backstroker Ziyad Saleem of California Looks to Leave His Mark on Paris Games

Ziyad Saleem poses in Berkeley, Calif., Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (AP)
Ziyad Saleem poses in Berkeley, Calif., Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (AP)

As a boy in Milwaukee, Ziyad Saleem would walk through the house pretending to swim backstroke — arm circling backward along the right ear and over his shoulder, then the other arm doing the same on the left side.

Some days he would also propel both arms forward as if doing butterfly. His father saw some real potential then, even out of the water.

"I was always, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’" Mohamed Saleem recalled. "It was range of motion or trying to master how he pulls under water. I knew he was attached to it."

The swimming bug had hit hard, and Saleem began dreaming big.

Little did Dad know this might actually lead to something that would mean so much to the family: The University of California swimmer is headed to the Paris Olympics to compete for Sudan, his parents’ home country and a place most of his relatives have now fled because of war and a massive humanitarian crisis.

"It’s hard to describe the feeling," Mohamed Saleem said of his son representing Sudan.

Not many think about swimming and Sudan in the same breath — but it is athletes such as Saleem who are helping put the sport on the map for the country in northern Africa that has a long coastline on the Red Sea.

When Saleem won a medal five years ago in Tunisia for one of his country's big successes in an international meet, he received royal treatment afterward.

So imagine the triumph in May when Saleem captured Sudan's first swimming gold medal at an African Championships with victory in the 200-meter backstroke. Saleem treasured his moment atop the podium as the national anthem played — then he got to do it again after winning the 100 back.

"It’s super cool being one of the first ones to medal and really be at the top of the sport in Sudan," Saleem said. "For me, it’s more about teaching the stuff I’ve learned in the US and all the training and high-level swimming I’m able to do here and kind of take it back to Sudan."

"I try helping out coaches at these world championships, giving them some of the tips I learned here in the US, and I think that’s just the biggest thing, extending what I’ve learned in the US over to Sudan and hopefully those kids can learn and become better swimmers."

A world away from Sudan’s turmoil, Saleem relishes his new life in the diverse Bay Area swimming next to decorated US Olympian Ryan Murphy in the Cal pool day after day, hour after hour, set after set.

Once in a while, Saleem can surprise Murphy and beat him during their backstroke warmups. And that’s always fun to give the gold medalist a run for his money, even if it’s just in practice and not under competition pressure.

"Sometimes, when he’s going easy in warmups, he’ll wait for the new set and really destroy me," Saleem said with a smile.

It’s hard for Saleem to believe he’s in the water alongside a former world-record holder like Murphy. This isn’t how it was supposed to go for Saleem. He committed to Iowa only to have the Hawkeyes program get cut because of COVID-19, suddenly leaving his college career path uncertain.

"So I was left without anything, nowhere to go," he recalled.

But when Saleem started dropping a couple of seconds in each of his events early on as a high school senior, Cal took notice. He committed without a visit or even talking to anybody on the team.

The program’s reputation and coaching told him all he needed to know. Not to mention the chance to share a pool with Murphy and so many other international greats.

"I knew it would be a place I’d really enjoy just having the world-class athletes here, a person like Murph," Saleem said. "I learn from him so much in and out of the water, what to do, his pointers. He’s a great person to have help you. When I first got here it was really surreal just seeing him in the water. But now since I’ve grown a relationship with him it’s not faded but I still admire him a lot. He’s a big reason why I chose to come to Cal just to have a world-record holder to train with every day."

Murphy loves swimming with Saleem, too.

"Ziyad is awesome, one of the nicest guys I’ve trained with at Cal," Murphy said. "He’s a happy person and hard worker."

Saleem was born in Milwaukee but holds dual citizenship, allowing him to compete for his parents’ homeland in the Olympics. Mohamed Saleem cherishes every chance to see his son compete for Sudan.

"We have a decent community here in Milwaukee. They’re very proud of him, so multiply that by 50,000 times being the father," Mohamed Saleem said. "When you say you don’t think of Sudan when it comes to swimming, they didn’t think of it either, that’s why it was a big surprise when he actually went the first time and won medals for the country. ... It brought a lot of attention to swimming and the potential."

Saleem will be a first-time Olympian, having gained experience on the big stage at multiple world championships.

He has secured Olympic berths in the 100 and 200 back — his best event — through each country’s one free entry, exempting him from qualifying minimums.

"I’m just trying to get faster and (reach) semifinals, that’s the goal," he said in the lead up to the Paris Games.

Saleem has been to Sudan several times and met some of his Sudanese teammates just through attending meets with them. They keep in touch despite training in various parts of the world, but it’s the Americans at Cal he knows best.

Most of his family is gone from Sudan.

"With the war, they’ve all emigrated toward Egypt. They were all in Sudan in like (last) June and now they all went to Egypt with what’s going on there (in Sudan)," he said. "There’s some in the Middle East. There’s maybe one or two still in Sudan but everybody else left."

His father immigrated to the United States in the 1990s and his mother in the early 2000s.

They can't wait to see him compete in Paris alongside Murphy and all of the other stars.

Might Saleem have taught Murphy a thing or two during all their training battles and hours together in the pool?

"I don’t know if much," Saleem said, "but I try to push my (backstroke) as much as I can and try to be a good person in and out of the water with him."