Just weeks after the CAN 2025 final, reigning African champion Idrissa Gana Gueye reflected on a surprising conversation during the match with his Moroccan opponent Achraf Hakimi.
In an interview with Onze Mondial, the Everton midfielder discussed the controversy over Edouard Mendy’s towel. To recap, during the match, the Senegalese goalkeeper had his towel taken away by Moroccan ball boys, as well as by Achraf Hakimi, his former teammate at PSG.
Gana Gueye catches Achraf Hakimi in the act
The Senegalese player recounted a moment when he caught the captain of the Atlas Lions, in the absence of Romain Saïss (27 years old, 93 caps, 11 goals), depriving Edouard Mendy of his towel.
“I forgot, there’s also the towel story. I was saying, ‘What are they doing?’ All goalkeepers have their towels. What was their problem with the towels? I didn’t get it.
Honestly, with everything that happened, I would need days to tell the story of that crazy final. (…) When I saw Achraf Hakimi take the towel and throw it, I said to him, ‘Achraf, not you, anyone but you.’ He replied, ‘No, I didn’t know.’”
Behind the scenes of the Senegalese players’ withdrawal
Idrissa Gana Gueye also talked about the behind-the-scenes drama of the Senegalese players’ temporary withdrawal after the penalty awarded to Morocco in the dying seconds of stoppage time, before the Lions of Teranga returned to the pitch at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.
“We score from a set piece, then the referee blows for a foul against us. Then, he awards the penalty to them. And everything goes crazy.
We’re asking, ‘Are we playing or not?’ The match stops for a moment. We didn’t understand what was happening, we just wanted to win.
We talked with Sadio Mané. He went to speak with some veterans, then came back. We discussed with the coach, and Sadio said, ‘We go back and we play.’
We started joking among ourselves. We said, ‘Plus, he hasn’t scored yet.’ And we kept laughing.”
