On this day: January 18

Birthdays, historic matches and AFCON moments in African football on January 18.

59 African footballers in our database were born on January 18, including Anass Salah-Eddine, Alaixys Romao and Stéphane Badji.

African national teams have played 29 matches on January 18 since 1962.

On January 18 2026, Morocco won the Africa Cup of Nations, beating Senegal in the final.

Footballers born on January 18 (59)

Player	Born	Nation	Position
Anass Salah-Eddine	2002	Morocco	Defender
Alaixys Romao	1984	Togo	Midfielder
Stéphane Badji	1990	Senegal	Midfielder
Oluwafemi Ajilore	1985	Nigeria	Midfielder
Hamdi Kasraoui	1983	Tunisia	Goalkeeper
Francisco Júnior	1992	Guinea-Bissau	Midfielder
Precious Dede	1980	Nigeria	Goalkeeper
Loren Zúñiga	2003	Equatorial Guinea	Centre-forward
Ibrahim Maaroufi	1989	Morocco	Midfielder
Ilay Camara	2003	Senegal
Nicole Payne	2001	Nigeria	Defender
Paul Mukairu	2000	Nigeria	Forward
Ugo Ukah	1984	Nigeria	Defender
Solomon Theophilus	1996	Nigeria	Forward
Hossam Arafat	1990	Egypt	Midfielder
Gboly Ariyibi	1995	Nigeria	Midfielder
Mohamed El Yousfi	1991	Morocco	Goalkeeper
Faissal Al Mazyani	2005	Morocco
Munashe Peter Garananga	2001	Zimbabwe	Defender
Hany El-Agazy	1985	Egypt	Forward
Adel El Hadi	1980	Algeria	Forward
Sabir Agougil	2002	Morocco	Midfielder
Ali Radjel	1998	Algeria	Wing half
Obinna Nwachukwu	1992	Nigeria	Midfielder
Mokhtar Lamhene	1990	Algeria	Midfielder
Hussein El Dor	1994	Ivory Coast	Defender
Francis Afriyie	1995	Ghana	Forward
Alfi Conteh-Lacalle	1985	Sierra Leone	Forward
Ichaka Diarra	1995	Mali	Defender
Candas Fiogbé	2005	Benin
Amjhad Nazih	2002	Morocco	Goalkeeper
Houssam Limane	1990	Algeria	Goalkeeper
Mohamed Boussefiane	1985	Algeria	Forward
Daniel Matsau	1977	South Africa	Attacker
Susanna Eises	1991	Namibia	Goalkeeper
Ilyas Cherchar	1992	Algeria	Defender
Wendy Shongwe	2003	South Africa	Forward
Youssouf Kamara	1981	Ivory Coast	Forward
Rabah Khelidi	1977	Algeria	Midfielder
Islam Mohamed fahem	1988	Egypt	Midfielder
Issouf Sanou	1979	Burkina Faso	Forward
Abu Seidu	1987	Ghana	Forward
Koko'o	1986	Cameroon	Forward
Thierno Niang	1992	Senegal	Forward
Zied Machmoum	1993	Tunisia	Defender
Toufik Mouyet	1977	Algeria	Goalkeeper
Moussa Sane	1997	Senegal	Forward
Arnold Maël Kamdem	2000	Cameroon
Lisa Jacob Zouaoui	2005	Algeria
Abdulaziz Noor	1999	Sudan
Odartey Lamptey	1981	Ghana	Forward
Quicala Bari	2002	Guinea-Bissau	Forward
Hleza Mofedi	1979	South Africa	Midfielder
Abdullahi Mustapha	1996	Nigeria
Akrem Maâtouk	1985	Tunisia	Midfielder
Stephen Babalola	1996	Nigeria	Midfielder
Babacar Touré	1988	Mauritania	Goalkeeper
Martin Karndu	1993	Liberia
Ragis Mbonyingabo	1995	Rwanda	Defender