Guinea
– Previous appearances in finals: (12) 1970, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1994, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2019.
– Best performance: Runners up 1976.
– Drawn in Group B with Malawi, Senegal and Zimbabwe.
Coach: Kaba Diawara
The 46-year-old took over as caretaker coach for November’s World Cup qualifiers when Didier Six was fired after a disappointing campaign. He was confirmed in the job just weeks before the African Cup of Nations kick-off.
Diawara won caps for France at under-21 but later played for Guinea. His nomadic club career took in stints at Girondins Bordeaux, Olympique Marseille and Paris St Germain in Ligue 1 and Arsenal, Blackburn Rovers and West Ham United in England.
Key player: midfielder Naby Keita.
The captain has a talismanic influence on his team but also a horror record of injury suffered on national team duty, including at the last African Cup of Nations where Guinea went out in the round of 16.
Keita was 17 when he moved to France first and then played in Austria and the Bundesliga before Liverpool spent a club record almost 50-million pound fee to sign him.
He won the first of his 44 caps in mid-2014 while still a teenager.
Malawi
– Previous appearances in finals: (2) 1984, 2010.
– Best performance: First round 1984, 2010.
– Drawn in Group B with Guinea, Senegal and Zimbabwe.
Coach: Mario Marinica
Romanian-born Marinica was appointed on Dec. 5, just a month before the start of the tournament, after the Malawi football association demoted his predecessor Meke Mwase to assistant.
Marinica, 57, had a journeyman career including stints in Tanzania and India and has worked at the youth academies of several London clubs.
Mwase, a former Malawi international, was demoted after a disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign.
Key player: forward Frank Mhango.
Mhango was the Golden Boot winner in South Africa’s premier league two seasons ago but injury has left him with little game time over the last six months.
The speedy striker has proven a devastating finisher when in form and has been a regular for his country over the last nine years.
He is one of just a handful of players in the Malawi squad at foreign clubs.
Senegal
– Previous appearances in finals: (15) 1965, 1968, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019.
– Best performance: Runners-up 2002, 2019.
– Drawn in Group B with Guinea, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Coach: Aliou Cisse
He captained Senegal at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, where they beat holders France in the opening game and reached the quarter final. His club career took in spells at Lille and Paris St Germain before he played in the English Premier League with Birmingham City and Portsmouth.
Cisse coached Senegal’s under-23 team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and then took over the senior side in 2015 and took them to the last World Cup finals in Russia.
This is the third Cup of Nations finals for the 45-year-old, who took Senegal to the final at the last edition.
Key player: forward Sadio Mane.
The reigning African Footballer of the Year competes at a fourth Cup of Nations finals, hoping to finally get Senegal to the winners’ podium after disappointing returns to the last three editions.
Mane has been a regular for his country since 2012 and collected 80 caps, including participation in the last World Cup in Russia.
He is the first Senegalese player to be voted Africa’s top footballer and has hero status in his country for his exploits at Liverpool, as well as his charitable deeds at home.
Zimbabwe
– Previous appearances in finals: (4) 2004, 2006, 2017, 2019.
– Best performance: Group phase.
– Drawn in Group B with Guinea, Malawi and Senegal.
Coach: Norman Mapeza
Mapeza was appointed caretaker coach midway through Zimbabwe’s abortive World Cup qualifying campaign in September and then asked to stay on for the Cup of Nations finals.
The former international defender, who was one of his country’s best footballing exports including a spell at Galatasaray, has already had three previous stints in charge of the national team.
He has won the league title in Zimbabwe twice and will return to the helm of Platinum FC when the tournament in Cameroon is completed.
Key player: forward Tino Kadewere.
Last season, 10 goals for Olympique Lyonnais in Ligue 1 confirmed the goalscoring reputation the Harare-born attacker had developed playing at Le Havre in Ligue 2.
He was feited among the best African footballers in the French league but looks to have lost his way this season through injury and a loss of form.
The Cup of Nations presents a chance for the goal poacher to revive his reputation, after getting only 20 minutes of game time at the last edition in Egypt in 2019.
