The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), a biennial soccer tournament featuring the top national teams from African countries, has been underway in Morocco since December, and will reach its climax in late January. And while many come for the soccer competition, most stay for the stellar jerseys each team dons specially for the tournament. African national soccer teams or known for their striking kit designs, which are typically much more vibrant, boisterous, and eye-catching than those from other regions. I’m happy to report that the 48 kits released for AFCON 2025 (24 teams, each with one home and one away jersey) did not fail to live up to that expectation. Check out the cream of the crop below!
Mali
For my money, and many others agree, the Mali home kit takes the cake. The shirt has a dazzling green, yellow and black bib-like design cascading down the chest with black pattern accents. It feels regal and classic like an extravagant collar, yet bold and celebratory, all the while still reading as a soccer jersey. The Mali players look like royalty in these, down to the patterned trim details along the hem and sleeves.
DR Congo
DR Congo’s light blue number features a snazzy pattern encircling the torso that harkens to a flame-animal pattern hybrid. I also quite like the contrast of the light blue with the bright red jersey number placed in the center of the chest just under the neckline. We also need to give a shoutout to the die-hard DR Congo fan who dressed up as the country’s late Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, for each of their games, striking this pose this entire time:
Senegal
Both Senegal’s home and away kits hit the mark as far as I’m concerned, with a roaring lion artfully incorporated into the green away kit, while the home jersey has a classy triple stripe slinking down the center composed of chains of geometric shapes.
Ivory Coast
The Ivory Coast kit is a stand-out for me for it’s creamsicle-orange and bright sea-foam teal color combo, along with a subtle scaly pattern not unlike shingles on a house you have to pay close attention to see. We also can’t talk about the Ivory Coast national team at 2025 AFCON without addressing the drip they arrived in Morocco wearing as a team:
Botswana
I enjoy the unique verticality of the Botswana home kits, and the fun pairing of power-clashing patterns.
Benin
Benin’s minimal home and away kits simply feature an organic squiggle shape at the center that I find quite fetching.
Burkina Faso
Similar to the Mali kit, Burkina Faso has been sporting a jersey with an eye-catching collar design, while faded stars dot the torso.
Suffice to say the AFCON kits have met the mark and then some, and are getting us even more excited for the jerseys we can expect for the upcoming 2026 World Cup hosted on our US soil. Alas, the drip gap between African countries and others has been writ large once again when comparing these AFCON kits to the USMNT World Cup jerseys that have leaked:
They’re fine, but compared to Mali? Not even a contest.
The post A Round-Up of the Drippiest Kits at the 2025 African Cup of Nations appeared first on PRINT Magazine.