Posts falsely claim photo shows Ivorian goalkeeper with black magic amulet in AFCON final

Hosts Ivory Coast beat Nigeria to win the African Cup of Nations on February 11, 2024. Social media users in Nigeria shared a photo claiming it showed Ivorian goalkeeper Yahia Fofana with “juju”, or a black magic amulet, under his jersey. The posts suggested this gave his team powers to help them triumph. However, the claim is false: AFP Fact Check found that the photo had been online months before the competition started and features a player from Senegalese club side ASC Jaraaf, not Fofana.

“Video of Ivorian goalkeeper allegedly ‘wearing juju’ during AFCON final sparks speculation,” reads a post shared on X on February 14, 2024.

AFCON refers to the African Cup of Nations. Ivory Coast hosted the month-long elite football competition that ended on February 11, 2024 (archived here). “Juju” is Nigerian slang for voodoo or black magic.

The belief in voodoo is central to the spiritual practices in parts of West Africa (archived here).

Reshared more than 1,700 times, the post features a photo of a goalkeeper with a black object tied to his lower back.

The X account promoting the claim belongs to journalist Reuben Abati who served as a media adviser to Goodluck Jonathan when he was the Nigerian president between 2011 and 2015.

Abati is a TV anchor for a popular morning show on local broadcaster Arise News.

The post contains a link to a blog article published in Abati’s name, which makes the same claim.

Those who took the allegation seriously include former Nigerian senator Shehu Sanni who urged Fifa to investigate the goalkeeper and “take measures” to prevent it from happening again.

A French-speaking Instagram account used the same image to suggest more broadly that the Senegalese team had used black magic during the tournament.

However, the claim that the photo showed the Ivorian goalie wearing a voodoo amulet in the final games of AFCON is false.

Senegalese player

Using a reverse image search, AFP Fact Check found that the picture has been online since at least September 2023.

An Instagram account published the photo on September 18, 2023 (archived here), months before AFCON kicked off.

The Swahili-speaking account condemned the use of voodoo in African football but did not mention the name or the nationality of the goalkeeper in the picture.

However, the letters “ASC Jaraaf” can be seen on the back of the goalie’s jersey.

A keyword search revealed that the Association Sportive de Culturelle Jaraaf is a professional football club based in Dakar, Senegal (archived here).

A photo posted by ASC Jaraaf on Instagram on November 20, 2023, shows the club’s goalkeeper putting on a purple jersey with 16 inscribed on the back (archived here) – the same number and kit colour as the player featured in the false posts.

A screenshot shows ASC Jaraf’s goalkeeper, taken on February 16, 2024

The team’s goalie was identified as Abdoulaye Diakhate in another Instagram post (archived here).

Meanwhile, the Ivorian goalkeeper in the final game of AFCON against Nigeria was Yahia Fofana who wore an all-black jersey with the number one (archived here). He plays club football with the French side, Angers.

Ivory Coast’s goalkeeper #1 Yahia Fofana gestures during the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) 2024 final football match between Ivory Coast and Nigeria at Alassane Ouattara Olympic Stadium in Ebimpe, Abidjan on February 11, 2024. ( AFP / Issouf SANOGO)

Voodoo in football

This is not the first time superstition has been associated with football.

In 2014, a Brazilian voodoo priest cursed the German football team before a semi-final game of the 2014 World Cup against the Selecao (archived here).

Germany went on to hand Brazil an embarrassing 7-1 defeat to lift the trophy.

Rumours also attributed the relative success enjoyed by the Republic of Benin at the 2019 AFCON edition to voodoo rituals (archived here).