WAFCON Hall of Fame: Records, rivalries, and African women who have stolen the show

The 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON 2026) is set to kick off in Morocco. This is the first time that the competition will feature a 16-team field, Afrik-foot reports.

As the tournament beckons, it’s worth pausing on just how far the tournament — and Africa’s dominant women’s football nation — has come.

Since the first official edition in 1998, the WAFCON has produced one dynasty, a handful of genuine surprises, and a cast of players whose names belong in any conversation about the greatest to ever play African football. Here’s the record book, the rivalries, and the women who built it.

Super Falcons Own the WAFCON Record Books

There is no debate about the most successful nation in WAFCON history: Nigeria’s Super Falcons. Their 10 titles — 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, and a dramatic comeback win over hosts Morocco in 2025 — put them well clear of every rival.

Nigeria have never lost a WAFCON final, and only two other countries have ever lifted the trophy: Equatorial Guinea, back-to-back champions in 2008 and 2012, and South Africa, who broke through for a maiden title in 2022.

The Super Falcons’ dominance runs deeper than trophies. Nigeria and South Africa are the only two nations to have appeared in all 13 editions of the tournament, but it’s Nigeria who have reached the semi-finals every single time they’ve played — a run no one else can match.

zAcross 79 WAFCON matches, the Super Falcons have won 62, drawn 10, and lost just seven, scoring 237 goals along the way — more than double South Africa’s tally of 111, the next-highest total in tournament history. That works out to an extraordinary three goals a game.

Cameroon and Ghana share the unwanted record of most final appearances without a title — three apiece — and both have the same story: every one of those defeats came against Nigeria.

The Individual Icons Who Built the Legacy

Ask any long-time follower of African women’s football who the greatest WAFCON player is, and one name comes up first: Perpetua Nkwocha.

The Nigerian forward’s 34 tournament goals remain the all-time scoring record by a distance, and it’s a mark that has stood for over a decade with no serious challenger in sight.

Nkwocha won the Golden Boot four separate times — 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2010 — a feat no other player has managed more than twice, and her 11 goals at the 2010 tournament is still the single-edition scoring record. She also has five WAFCON winner’s medals to her name.

Behind her, the chasing pack is almost entirely Nigerian. Desire Oparanozie and Mercy Akide-Udoh both finished their WAFCON careers with 11 goals apiece, while Asisat Oshoala — the modern face of Nigerian women’s football — has built a scoring record of her own, now Nigeria’s second-highest WAFCON scorer behind Nkwocha.

Oshoala’s signature moment came in 2016, when she scored four times in Nigeria’s opening match against Mali to become only the second player, after Nkwocha, to score four goals in a single WAFCON game.

She went on to win that year’s Golden Boot and has since added three WAFCON winner’s medals (2014, 2016, 2018) to a résumé that also includes multiple African Women’s Footballer of the Year awards.

Outside Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea’s Genoveva Añonman stands out as the tournament’s most prolific non-Nigerian scorer, with 14 goals and the 2008 Golden Boot — the same tournament in which her country stunned Nigeria’s dynasty to win their first title.

The trophy race has also thrown up more recent stars: South Africa’s Thembi Kgatlana claimed the 2018 Golden Boot with five goals as Banyana Banyana continued their rise, while Hildah Magaia shared top-scorer honours in 2022, including a brace in the final that delivered South Africa’s historic maiden title.

And it all started with Nkiru Okosieme, nicknamed “The Headmistress” for her aerial dominance, who scored the tournament’s very first goal in 1998 and became the inaugural Golden Boot winner as Nigeria opened their account with an 8–0 rout of Morocco.

The Players With the Most WAFCON Appearances

Longevity has its own hall of fame at WAFCON, and right now it belongs to Nigeria’s Onome Ebi, who has featured in seven editions of the tournament — a remarkable span for any international footballer.

But that record is under real threat in 2026: Cameroon captain Gabrielle Aboudi Onguéné is one appearance away from making history. If she features against Mali, Onguéné becomes the first player ever to appear in eight WAFCON tournaments, surpassing Ebi’s mark outright.

Appearances aren’t the only longevity record on the line this year. Super Falcons stars Francisca Ordega and Osinachi Ohale already share the record for most WAFCON titles won by an individual player, with five each.

Should Nigeria go all the way again in Morocco, both would move to six title wins apiece — extending a record that reflects just how long Nigeria’s core group has stayed at the top of African women’s football.

The Rivalries That Define WAFCON

Nigeria vs Ghana — the Jollof Derby. West Africa’s fiercest women’s football rivalry has a lopsided history: Ghana reached the WAFCON final in 1998, 2002, and 2006, and lost to Nigeria each time. The bragging rights still matter enormously to both nations every time they meet, tournament stakes or not.

Nigeria vs South Africa — the new heavyweight clash. Where the Ghana and Cameroon rivalries were forged through shared borders and colonial history, Nigeria and South Africa’s rivalry has grown purely out of what’s happened on the pitch.

Nigeria have historically had the upper hand, winning 15 of 23 meetings, but South Africa have landed the biggest blows when it has mattered most — eliminating the Super Falcons at the semi-final stage in 2022 en route to their first-ever title.

Their earliest continental final, back in 2000, was even abandoned late on after crowd trouble in South Africa, with Nigeria awarded the win. The pendulum has swung back and forth ever since, and every meeting now carries genuine title-race weight.

Nigeria vs Cameroon. Like the Ghana rivalry, this one is rooted in geography and history as much as football — and Cameroon’s three final losses, all to Nigeria, have only sharpened it.

Why It All Matters Heading Into 2026

The 2026 WAFCON in Morocco — running from July 25 to August 16 — is the tournament’s biggest yet, expanded to 16 teams with Cape Verde and Malawi making their debuts, taking the all-time list of participating nations to 31.

Nigeria arrive as defending champions chasing an 11th title and another shot at extending nearly every record in the book, while Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, and hosts Morocco will all fancy their chances of writing a new chapter into WAFCON’s history.

One thing is certain: whoever lifts the trophy in August will have to get past the standard the Super Falcons set — a standard three decades in the making.