It is almost three decades since Pele offered his famous prediction that an African country would win the World Cup before the turn of the century: a romantic vision that was not to be. Although football's greatest prize has remained tantalisingly out of reach (who is to say what will happen later this summer, however?), the array of galacticos competing in the 27th African Cup of Nations in Angola is a further reminder that the continent has a rich tradition of producing individual players to rank with the very best in Europe or South America.
Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Ghana) and, provided he still plays after the attack on Friday, Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo) are firmly established as global stars and, with the eyes of the world upon them during the coming three weeks of the tournament, the next generation of African talent will be eager to enhance their reputations and valuations in the foreign transfer markets.
Which begs the question: who is the greatest African footballer of all time? With all due respect to the illustrious quartet already mentioned - and this is purely my personal opinion - in third place I would nominate Liberia's George Weah, who won league titles in France with Paris St Germain and Italy with AC Milan before being voted African, European and World Footballer of the Year in 1995 when he beat Paolo Maldini and Juergen Klinsmann to the title.
Having scored 60 goals in 114 games for Milan in Serie A, Weah was considered to be somewhat past his best when he joined Chelsea on loan at the age of 33 in 2000 but proved his doubters wrong by scoring the winning goal on his debut in the London derby against Tottenham and collecting an FA Cup winners' medal at Wembley. To mark the third Millennium, a select band of the world's sports writers (who obviously disagreed with my third-placed assessment) voted Weah the African Footballer of the 20th Century, awarding Pele the South American title and Johan Cruyff the European crown.
Ahead of Weah and runner-up in this column's view, however, is Roger Milla of Cameroon. Thirty-eight-years-old (although there are some who claim he was well over 40 at the time), Milla was living in comfortable retirement on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion when he received a phone call from President Paul Biya pleading with him to pull on his boots one final time to help the Indomitable Lions' cause in the 1990 World Cup finals.
Whatever his true age, the old fella was the sensation of Italia '90. Given his advanced years, Milla began most games on the substitutes' bench before being called into action at the appropriate moment. In the opening group phase he scored both goals in the 2-1 victory over Romania, a feat he repeated in the first knock-out round, netting in the 106th and 109th minutes in the 2-1 extra-time defeat of Colombia.
Trailing England 1-0 at half-time in the quarter-finals, Cameroon's Russian coach Valery Nepomniachy threw Milla into the fray to immediate effect: first he won the penalty from which Emmanuel Kunde equalised before his dazzling skills set up a second goal for Eugene Ekeke. Now leading 2-1 with just eight minutes remaining, the Indomitable Lions were finally overcome 3-2 in extra-time. Had Milla - who was still around to score against Russia in the 1994 World Cup aged 42 - been eight years younger, then Cameroon might well have fulfilled Pele's prophecy.
And the greatest African foot-baller of them all? The peerless Eusebio da Silva Ferreira whose story began in the unlikely surroundings of a Lisbon hair salon where the Benfica manager Bela Guttmann was having his monthly trim one afternoon in 1961. By chance the Hungarian found himself sitting in the chair next to Jorge Bauer, the coach of Brazilian club Sao Paolo who were on a pre-season world tour. Bauer spent the best part of an hour raving about a 19-year-old he had just seen in Mozambique, a wonder-boy he had tried to sign only to be told that he had been promised to Benfica's city rivals Sporting Lisbon.
Guttmann caught the first flight to Lourenco Marques (now Maputo), agreed a US$10,000 (Dh36,700) fee with Eusebio's club - larceny on a grand scale as it would turn out - and hid his acquisition away in an Algarve fishing village until Sporting's anger had abated. Over the next decade and a half, Eusebio - who would become known as the "Black Pearl" - would score 727 goals in 715 games for Benfica, during which time the club won 10 Portuguese championships and the 1962 European Cup.
The European Footballer of the Year in 1965, Eusebio was top scorer in the 1966 World Cup finals with nine goals, including four against North Korea in an unforgettable quarter-final at Everton's Goodison Park where Portugal came from 3-0 down after 22 minutes to win 5-3. He scored again in the 2-1 defeat against England in the semi-finals when he left the Wembley pitch in tears at the final whistle. England went on to win the Jules Rimet trophy while Eusebio had to make do with receiving a consolatory hug from Sir Bobby Charlton and being immortalised in wax in Madame Tussaud's. Sadly, although he scored 41 goals in 64 international appearances, Eusebio never appeared in the World Cup finals again as a result of Portugal's failure to qualify for the 1970 and 1974 tournaments. We should watch events in Angola with great interest. @Email:rphilip@thenational.ae