The Africa Cup of Nations 2021 competition kicks off on Sunday, with 24 countries vying for the continent’s most important title in Cameroon.
The African Football Confederation (AFCON) is the continent’s premier international association football competition. It was originally held in 1957 and has been conducted every two years since 1968.
The CAF had already issued a list of 63 match officials who will officiate at the event, including Rwandan Salima Mukansanga.
Mukansanga is one of four women on the roster of match officials. Carine Atemzabong (Cameroon), Fatiha Jermoumi (Morocco), and Bouchra Karboubi are among the others (Morocco).
Mukansanga, is set to become the first woman to officiate as a center referee at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Since 2018, she has been appointed to officiate many matches in Rwanda, Africa, and throughout the world.
She has been compared to one of the finest referees, Pierluigi Collina, because she is thought to have similar authority on the field as the Italian.
Salima Mukansanga has been to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo Japan, 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France among other recent big events.
It is worthy of note that the 34-year-old wanted to be a professional basketball player before she changed her mind