Previous African achievements at the Club World Cup
Although no African club has ever won the Club World Cup. But previous editions of the tournament have seen good African performances and numbers.
African Champions Al-Ahly are set to make their sixth appearance at the FIFA Club World Cup, which this year, will get underway in Qatar on Thursday. Al-Alhy take on the host country representative Al Duhail hoping they can make through to a clash with UEFA champions league winner Bayern Munich in the tournament's semi-final.
Despite the dominance of European and South American teams in terms of winning the trophy since it changed format back in 2000, African teams managed to achieve so impressive numbers with Al-Ahly have the most-ever African appearances in the competition as they have been part of the tournament in years: 2005-2006-2008-2012-2013 winning the bronze medal in 2006.
The furthest an African team has gone in CWC:
The most significant African achievement in CWC was accomplished by both Mazembe of Congo and Morocco's Raja, who managed to reach the final game in 2010 and 2013. Mazembe secured their berth in the 2010 final after defeating Brazilian international ahead of clashing with Serie A side Inter Milan who stunned them with a 3-0 victory.
Raja Casablanca who took part in the 2013 edition as the representative of the host country and the champions of the domestic league have had a very successful campaign eliminating Clube Atlético Mineiro of Brazil in the semi-final with a 3-1 victory before losing the final game 2-0 to Bayern Munich securing the best Arabic achievement in the tournament's history to their name.
The last two African contributions in CWC were made by Espérance Sportive de Tunis who finished in the fifth place on both occasions having claimed a thrashing a 6-2 victory over Qatari Al-Sadd last year after losing to Saudi Al-Hilal in the semi-final.
A total of nine African teams have taken part in the highly-ranked event and they are; Al Ahly (5 times), Espérance Sportive de Tunis and Mazembe (3), Raja Casablanca (2), Wydad Casablanca, ES Sétif, Maghreb Tétouan, and Étoile Sportive du Sahel (1).