Football was introduced in Africa late in the 19th century and football teams were already being founded in South Africa before 1900. In 1930, football was being played across Central Africa. From then on, things started to build especially with the formation of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in 1957.
Today, football is a common game in the African continent and below is a list of the 5 best football clubs in Africa.
TP Mazembe
Tout Puissant Mazembe or TP Mazembe is a football club in Congo that first started out as a school football team in Saint-Boniface Institute in Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi). Then, the team was known as FC Saint Georges as was sponsored by the Benedictine missionaries that ran the school. Years passed and the team was renamed Saint Paul F.C and then F.C. Engelbert when a brand of tyres took over the sponsorship of the team.
“Tout Puissant” was added to the name of the club after it obtained its first league win of which the club was unbeaten in 1966. Between 1967-68, TP Mazembe won the African Cup of Champions. In 2009, the club won by a an aggregate, the CAF Champions League after beating Heartland which qualified them for the FIFA Club World Cup.
Al-Merrikh SC
Al-Merrikh Sporting Club is a football club that is based in Omdurman in Sudan. The football club was founded in the year 1908 and was given the name Al-Masalma Sporting Club at the time because it was formed by students of Gordon Memorial College from Al-Masalma district in Omdurman. It was not until the year 1927 that the football club was renamed Al-Merrikh Sporting Club.
The Al-Merrikh Sporting Club home stadium is the Al-Merrikh Stadium that is more commonly known by its local name, The Red Castle. Al-Merrikh Sporting Club has won the Sudan Premier League 16 times to be exact and the Sudan Cup 14 times. They won the African Cup Winners’ Cup/CAF Confederations Cup in 1989, and they won the CECAFA Clubs Cup 3 times.
Espérance Sportive de Tunis
Espérance Sportive de Tunis goes by a lot of titles such as EST, ES Tunis, Espérance ST, Espérance de Tunis and even just Espérance. The football club was founded on the 15th of January, 1919 and is based in Tunis, Tunisia. The home stadium of the club is Stade El Menzah.
Espérance Sportive de Tunis has won the Tunisian League 28 times – 7 times in a row between 1998 to 2004 and 4 times in a row between 2009 to 2012. It also won the Tunisian Cup 15 times and the Tunisian Super Cup 3 times.
They won the CAF Champions League twice, once in 1994 and then in 2011. They also won the African Cup Winners’ Cup in 1998, the CAF Super Cup in 1995, the CAF Cup in 1997, and the Afro-Asian Club Championship in 1995. They won the Arab Club Champions Cup 3 times and the Arab Super Cup once.
Raja Casablanca
Raja Casablanca is a part of Raja Club Athletic (RCA), a sports team in Casablanca, Morocco which was founded on the 20th of March, 1949. Raja CA has on 11 events been laurelled domestic champions and never has the club gone to relegation in the Second Division.
Raja Casablanca has won the CAF Champions League 3 times, the CAF Super Cup once and the CAF Cup once. In the year 2000, Raja Casablanca came third in the ranking of African clubs in the last century. The football club has also won the Afro-Asian Cup once and it happens to be the second African team to be part of the FIFA Club World Cup final right after TP Mazembe after they beat Atlético Mineiro in 2013.
Al-Hilal Club
Al-Hilal Club is a football club was formed when in 1930 a group of four graduates of the Gordon Memorial College (now known as University of Khartoum) by the names of Hamdnaallah Ahmed, Yousif Mustafa Al-Tinay, Yousif Al-Mamoun, and Babiker Mukhtar Tatay came to a decision to create a sports club and they had others with them.
There is a story that the club came by its name when one of its founders, Adam Rajab was supposedly looking at the night sky when he saw a crescent and that was how the club was named Hilal meaning crescent in Arabic.
Al-Hilal has been the champion of the Sudan League 26 times, won the Sudan Cup 7 times, and has been the champion of the Khartoum League 16 times.
