African football fans are looking forward to the 28th edition of the continent’s premier event, the Nations Cup tournament. The 16-team competition will see a new African champion crowned on February 12, when the final is held in Libreville, Gabon.

The Pharaohs of Egypt, three-time defending African champions, did not qualify for the African soccer tournament, which officially kicks off January 21 with two matches in Bata, Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea will host Libya in the opening game, and that will be followed by a match between Senegal and Zambia.

In addition to the Egyptians, three other traditional powers in African football – Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa – also failed to qualify for the Nations Cup, perhaps an indication that African soccer is on the rise and new players and teams are ready for the spotlight.

The 2012 tournament will feature three teams that are making their Nations Cup debuts – Botswana, Niger and co-host Equatorial Guinea. All three are expected to have a hard time advancing out of the first round group stage.

Two of the favourites are neighbours Ghana and Ivory Coast, which both qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The Elephants of Ivory Coast are currently ranked first in Africa by Fifa, world football’s governing body, while The Black Stars of Ghana are second.

Ivory Coast has several star players based in England, including Didier Drogba of Chelsea and Yaya Toure of Manchester City. Drogba is a two-time African Footballer of the Year (2006, 2009), while Toure recently won the 2011 award in Accra, Ghana.

The youngest player at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations football tournament will be Bertrand Traore, a 16-year-old midfielder for Chelsea and Burkina Faso. If he sees action during the competition in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, Traore will become the third youngest player ever at African football’s premier event.

The record is held by Gabon’s Shiva Star Nzigou, who was 16 years and almost three months old when he played against South Africa at the 2000 Nations Cup in Ghana. The second youngest is Mohammed Kallon, who came on as a substitute and scored one of his country’s two goals in Sierra Leone’s 2-1 victory over Burkina Faso at the 1996 Nations Cup in South Africa.

Traore has yet to play a match with Chelsea’s senior club, but there’s a good chance at the Nations Cup he’ll play against Chelsea stars Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou, because Burkina Faso’s second match is against Ivory Coast January 26 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

Co-hosts Gabon received a big boost a month ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament, when its team was the surprise winner of the African under-23 football championship in Morocco.

Gabon upset host Morocco, 2-1, in the final in Marrakech, to win the trophy. This youth competition doubled as a qualifying event for next year’s Olympic men’s football tournament in London, so in addition to celebrating the victory over the Moroccans, the Gabonese smiled over earning their first-ever Olympic soccer berth.

The Nations Cup history books tell us Gabon’s best showing at Africa’s premier football tournament came in 1996, when the team reached the quarterfinals in South Africa. As we look ahead to next month’s African football jamboree, the Gabonese will surely have the crowd on their side for their first round matches in the capital, Libreville. And the under-23 team’s championship performance in Morocco could be a sign of bigger things to come.