Watford’s AFCON Winner Finally Opens Up on Being Third Time Lucky

• Ismaïla Sarr has opened up on Senegal's AFCON triumph after joining the team in the latter stages in Cameroon
• Sarr was participating in his third Africa Cup of Nations as the Teranga Lions won the tournament for the first time in their history
• The Watford star nearly missed the tournament after a tug-of-war between his club and the Senegal national team

Watford winger Ismaïla Sarr finally became an AFCON winner after nearly missing the competition because of an injury and the club's reluctance to release him.

Sarr had appeared in two AFCON tournaments where Senegal were eliminated by Cameroon in 2017 and beaten by Algeria in the final in 2019.

However, he became third time lucky after beating the odds to represent his country to become a champions and in an interview with Watford's media he explained the emotions of being a winner for the first time.

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“That’s my third African Cup. On the first one we got knocked out by Cameroon and I remember crying because it hurt so much,” he said.

“The second one we got eliminated in the final against Algeria and again I can remember how much it hurt, and I cried again. But this time in the final I must say I cried because of the happiness, because we finally won.

“The whole country went on to the streets to celebrate with us, it was a lot of people. We were very happy, but when we went back to Senegal and saw everyone, we were even happier. We saw how much it meant to everyone.”

Sarr arrived in Cameroon at the elimination stages, where he helped Senegal beat Cape Verde before scoring in the 3-1 victory against Equatorial Guinea.

He also starred in the semi-final win over Burkina Faso before starting the final against Egypt as Senegal won 4-2 on penalties.

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Senegal given heroes welcome after AFCON triumph

Earlier, Sports Brief reported that fresh from beating Egypt for Africa Cup glory in Cameroon, Senegal's heroes returned to Dakar and basked in their success in front of thousands during an open top bus parade.

The players received a substantial police escort as fans flocked to the streets of Dakar to show their support to their Africa Cup heroes as the country celebrated their first ever international title.

As well as the 500,000 fans who flocked to Dakar, a number of the squad's big names, including Sadio Mane, Edouard Mendy, Idrissa Gueye and Khalidou Koulibaly documented the day of celebrations via their social media.