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Former Super Eagles captain William Troost-Ekong has received another major continental honour after the Confederation of African Football selected him as one of the official assistants for the draw of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, Footynaija reports.
The ceremony is scheduled to take place on Tuesday in Cairo at the headquarters of the Egyptian Football Association, where the Super Eagles will discover the teams standing between them and another appearance at Africa’s biggest football tournament.
Troost-Ekong will join a respected cast of African football figures for the event, including former Ivory Coast winger Max-Alain Gradel, legendary Egypt goalkeeper Essam El Hadary and DR Congo icon Trésor Mputu. CAF confirmed that the draw will be shown live on CAF TV and across its digital platforms.
African Legends Gradel, Troost-Ekong, El Hadary and Mputu to assist Draw for CAF AFCON PAMOJA 2027 Qualifiers.#Pepeta #FootballKE #AFCON2027 pic.twitter.com/luT5HV6rPa
— Pepeta (@pepeta_ke) May 18, 2026
The 2027 tournament, officially named AFCON PAMOJA 2027, will be jointly hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, the first time three nations will organise the competition together.
Forty-eight countries are expected to enter the qualifiers. The teams will be placed into 12 groups of four, with the top two sides from each group reaching the finals. However, because the three host nations already have guaranteed places at the tournament, only one additional team can qualify from each of their groups.
Nigeria head into the draw carrying one of the strongest AFCON records of recent years. The Super Eagles finished runners-up at the 2023 finals in Ivory Coast after losing narrowly to the hosts in the final, with Troost-Ekong scoring Nigeria’s only goal before later being named Player of the Tournament.
The three-time African champions also reached the semi-finals at the 2025 edition in Morocco and secured bronze after beating Egypt in the third-place playoff. Nigeria have now reached the last four in three of the last four AFCON tournaments.
Qualification matches for AFCON 2027 will be played between September 2026 and March 2027, while the finals are set to run from June 19 to July 17, 2027, across East Africa.
