AFCON 2025’s final will showcase two elite goalkeepers who sharpen their craft each week in Saudi Arabia, bringing the Saudi Pro League’s intensity to Africa’s biggest stage.
Their journeys from the Gulf back to the continent underline how deeply interconnected African football has become with the game’s new financial and competitive hub.
Morocco’s Yassine Bounou, now a star for Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia, arrives at this final as a symbol of calm authority and late‑career excellence. His command of the box and penalty‑area presence have been refined in a league that regularly puts him up against some of the world’s most clinical forwards. Yassine Bounou is the first Moroccan goalkeeper to keep five clean sheets at a single AFCON edition. Bounou has kept a total of 11 clean sheets at AFCON tournaments.
On the opposite side, Senegal’s Edouard Mendy brings his Saudi Pro League experience with Al Ahli and Champions League pedigree, blending sharp reflexes with a deep understanding of high-pressure knockout football. His time in Saudi Arabia has kept him in rhythm against fast transitions and aerial bombardment that echo the demands of AFCON. Edouard Mendy has kept four clean sheets at the current edition and recorded his 10th AFCON clean sheet against Egypt. Four clean sheets is the most Mendy has kept in a single edition, having kept three in 2021. Mendy is the first Senegalese goalkeeper since Alfred Gomis in 2019 to keep four clean sheets in a single edition.
Both goalkeepers embody a generation of African players who left home to grow abroad yet still feel the emotional weight of representing their countries when it matters most. They carry family expectations, childhood dreams, and the responsibility of inspiring young African keepers watching from crowded viewing centres across the continent.
Each save in this final will be about more than technique; it will be about resilience, adaptation, and proving that African goalkeepers shaped by Saudi football can decide the destiny of a continental crown.
The AFCON 2025 final between Morocco and Senegal is scheduled to take place at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, with a kick-off time of 8:00 PM local time. The whole world will be watching this final.
