Kenya U20 national football team – Rising Stars – will have a meeting with defending champions Senegal in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Under 20 championships set for 26 April – 18 May in Ivory Coast.In a Thursday afternoon draw ceremony in Cairo, debutants Kenya were placed in the competition’s Group C, where they will face the 2023 champions Senegal, 2017 winners Zambia, and first-timers Sierra Leone.##NAJAVA_MECA_8702556##As per the draw format, the top two teams from the group will qualify automatically to the knock-out stages, with two of the best third-placed sides also advancing.A total of 13 teams will be in the competition, which also serves as a qualifier for the 2025 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, to be held in Chile from September 27 to October 19, 2025.This will be the first time Kenya will be stepping foot in the championships that have a long history dating back 46 years, after only playing at such a level in 1979, when the competition was then known as the African Youth Championship.Under Salim Babu, Kenya made history by qualifying for the tournament after finishing runners-up in the CECAFA Qualifiers in October.History as Rising Stars qualify for 2025 AFCONAnd in what could be a baptism of fire, the Rising Stars will have to find a way past the Young Lions of Senegal, who under coach Serigne Saliou Dia, scooped their second consecutive WAFU A title in September last year.The 2023 champions will be also be bolstered by presence of the history-making squad that won the U17 AFCON two years ago.Though making it to the tournament for the first time, Sierra Leone will also not be a walk in the park, as they were the team that pushed Senegal in the WAFU A final, ultimately losing 2-0.Tanzanian striker yet to give up on FKFPL ‘Golden Boot’ despite trailing Ogam by eleven goalsZambia, meanwhile, are the 2017 champions, and proved tough opposition against 1997 runners-up South Africa in the COSAFA finals early October.Aside from Group C, neighboring Tanzania – the CECAFA Qualifiers winners – have been placed in Pool A, where they will come up against hosts Ivory Coast, four-time winners Ghana, and DR Congo.The final team in Group A is yet to be confirmed, as Congo-Brazzaville serve a FIFA ban for third-party football interference.The ‘pool of death’ however will see two of the most successful nations Egypt and Nigeria battle it out in Group B with 1997 winners Morocco and South Africa.
