African national teams have some of the most colourful nicknames in world football. Many come from national symbols, wildlife or local languages.
The stories behind the names
- Super Eagles (Nigeria): the eagle appears on Nigeria's coat of arms. The team was known as the Green Eagles until the late 1980s.
- Black Stars (Ghana): named after the black star in the centre of Ghana's flag, a symbol of African freedom.
- Indomitable Lions (Cameroon): a name that captured the spirit of the team's famous 1990 World Cup run.
- Atlas Lions (Morocco): after the Atlas Mountains and the Barbary lion that once lived there.
- Pharaohs (Egypt): a reference to the rulers of ancient Egypt.
- Desert Foxes (Algeria): the fennec fox of the Sahara is a national symbol.
- Lions of Teranga (Senegal): "teranga" is a Wolof word for hospitality, central to Senegalese culture.
- Elephants (Ivory Coast): the elephant is the country's national animal and gave Côte d'Ivoire its name.
- Bafana Bafana (South Africa): Zulu for "the boys, the boys".
- Chipolopolo (Zambia): "copper bullets", after the country's copper industry.
- Harambee Stars (Kenya): "harambee" is Swahili for "let's pull together", Kenya's national motto.
- Taifa Stars (Tanzania): "taifa" means "nation" in Swahili.
- Cranes (Uganda): the grey crowned crane is Uganda's national bird and appears on its flag.
- Amavubi (Rwanda): Kinyarwanda for "the wasps".
- Bright Stars (South Sudan): chosen for Africa's youngest nation and its hopes for the future.
- Leopards (DR Congo): the leopard has long been a symbol of power in Congolese culture.
Every team's nickname is also shown on its national team page. The table below is generated from our database.
