{"id":75261,"date":"2026-02-10T09:08:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T09:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/75261\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T09:08:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T09:08:34","slug":"senegals-unlikely-hero-yehvann-dioufs-towel-defense-steals-the-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/75261\/","title":{"rendered":"Senegal’s unlikely hero: Y\u00e9hvann Diouf’s towel defense steals the show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senegal has an unlikely new hero, and he did not even play in the chaotic Africa Cup of Nations final<\/a> won by his country.<\/p>\n

In a bizarre turn of events, Senegal\u2019s second-choice goalkeeper Y\u00e9hvann Diouf spent long spells of Sunday\u2019s match protecting the towels used by starting keeper Edouard Mendy from repeated attempts by ball boys to snatch them.<\/p>\n

Diouf\u2019s efforts have been praised by fans as being almost as crucial as the extra-time winning goal scored by Pape Gueye, which secured Senegal\u2019s second Africa Cup of Nations title.<\/p>\n

Goalkeepers often keep towels close to them to wipe themselves and their gloves, especially in wet conditions such as those during Sunday\u2019s final in Rabat.<\/p>\n

Diouf had a crucial role on the sidelines, fighting off the assaults. At one point, he was chased by ball boys along the touchline. Some videos also show him lying flat on the pitch, shielding one of the towels, while a young man tries to wrestle with him.<\/p>\n

In other footage filmed from the stands, Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi can be seen throwing one of Mendy\u2019s towels over advertising boards. At another moment Morocco midfielder Isma\u00ebl Saibari tried to prevent Diouf from handing a towel to Mendy.<\/p>\n

Praising the tireless work of the second-choice goalkeeper, one social media user wrote on X: \u201cYehvann Diouf\u2019s work, guys. You\u2019ve earned the respect of an entire country. SOLDIER.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diouf made light of the situation, later posting a picture of him biting on his medal and holding a towel, with the caption: \u201cHere it is (the medal and the towel).\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters after the match, Diouf said he did not understand why the opposing side got so obsessed with the towels. <\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe people read something into those towels, but in any case they were only used to dry the gloves and the face when it\u2019s raining,\u201d he said. \u201cI was just as surprised as you were, but like the team as a whole, we stuck together, and Edouard was able to get the towels he needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP at the Africa Cup: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/africa-cup-of-nations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senegal has an unlikely new hero, and he did not even play in the chaotic Africa Cup of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[173,146,2082,159,323,264,43389],"class_list":{"0":"post-75261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-senegal","8":"tag-achraf-hakimi","9":"tag-africa-cup-of-nations","10":"tag-edouard-mendy","11":"tag-senegal","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-yehvann-diouf"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116045552301128739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}