Guinea’s Gnagna eyes African Nations Championship top scorer prize

Guinea international Yakhouba Gnagna has expressed his desire to emerge as the top goalscorer of the 2021 African Nations Championship currently taking place in Cameroon.

The 23-year-old found the net on two occasions with Morlaye Sylla sealing the triumph as the Syli National breezed past Namibia 3-0 in their opening Group D game played at Limbe Omnisports Stadium on Tuesday evening.

As it stands, he is the competition’s joint-highest goalscorer with two goals alongside Cameroon’s Salomon Banga. However, he is keen on winning the individual accolade when the 2021 Chan draws to a close on February 7, 2021.

“I am happy to score two goals in our opening match against Namibia. But my target is to keep working hard so that I become the tournament top scorer,” the Horoya AC goal machine told the Caf website.

Thanks to their result against the Brave Warriors, Guinea lead their group that also parades Zambia and Tanzania.

Notwithstanding their good start, Gnagna made it clear that it is still very early to rate them amongst the tournament’s favourites.

“As a team, we must treat every match like a final because this will help us reach our goal,” he continued.

“I am also glad that we have very passionate fans that came to the stadium on Tuesday and cheered for us.”

Guinea will earn a place in the quarter-final should they defeat the Chipolopolo in their next outing on January 23. Zambia made a winning start to the competition, defeating the Taifa Stars 2-0 courtesy of second-half strikes from Collins Sikombe and Emmanuel Chabula.

The West African country is making their third appearance in the biennial African football showdown. Their best result remains a fourth-place finish at the 2016 edition staged in Rwanda – losing the third-place match 2-1 to Cote d’Ivoire at the Amahoro Stadium, Kigali.

Prior to Cameroon 2021, they have only won two, lost on four occasions and settled for a draw thrice in their nine Chan outings.

Their victories were against Nigeria 1-0 on January 26, 2016 and against Mauritania (1-0) on January 21 2018, each time in the group phase.