{"id":36027,"date":"2026-06-02T10:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T08:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36027"},"modified":"2026-06-02T10:42:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T08:42:53","slug":"mane-leads-potent-senegal-squad-for-world-cup-finals","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/mane-leads-potent-senegal-squad-for-world-cup-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Mane leads potent Senegal squad for World Cup finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Senegal coach Pape Thiaw has dropped defenders Moustapha Mbow and Ilay Camara from his preliminary squad to finalise his 26-man line-up for the World Cup before FIFA&#8217;s deadline on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Sadio Mane, who scored both of Senegal&#8217;s goals against the United States, remains a key figure in a star-studded Senegal squad that looks to be the most potent of the 10 African qualifiers for the finals.<\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old Al-Nassr forward will lead the line, while Bayern Munich striker Nicolas Jackson, Everton&#8217;s Iliman Ndiaye and Crystal Palace winger Ismaila Sarr have also been selected.<\/p>\n<p>Bayern Munich&#8217;s 18-year-old midfielder Bara Ndiaye, who made his international debut on Sunday, playing the full 90 minutes, did enough to retain his place in the squad.<\/p>\n<p>Senegal open their World Cup campaign against France on June 16 in New Jersey, in a repeat of their 2002 World Cup meeting, when the African side famously defeated the then-holders.<\/p>\n<p>They will also face Norway at the same venue on June 22 and Iraq in Toronto on June 26 in their Group I matches.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21607,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-36027","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Senegal open their World Cup campaign against France on June 16 in New Jersey","published_date":"","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36028,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36027\/revisions\/36028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}