Afcon 2023: Alfa Semedo on 'unreal' Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo encounters
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Alfa Semedo (left) has come face to face before with 2022 Ballon d'Or winner and Saudi Pro League newcomer Karim Benzema
Alfa Semedo was reduced to a watching brief for most of Guinea-Bissau's 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) campaign.
Struck down by Covid-19 on the eve of the tournament, the midfielder quarantined in his Cameroonian hotel and featured in only 15 minutes of his side's final group-stage game against Nigeria.
This time around in Ivory Coast, the 26-year-old is determined to help propel Guinea-Bissau to the knockout stages for the first time - helped by his experiences of playing against some of the most decorated players of all time.
Semedo joined Saudi Pro League club Al-Tai in August 2022, four months before five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo became the most high-profile name to move to the country when Al-Nassr signed the Portugal captain.
Five-time Champions League winner Karim Benzema, four-time Premier League winner Riyad Mahrez and the most expensive player in history, Neymar, are among the succession of stellar names to have followed Semedo's and Ronaldo's path in 2023.
Unsurprisingly, Semedo has enjoyed the challenge of facing some of the world's best players this season.
"It's unreal - unbelievable," Semedo told BBC Sport Africa.
"It is great because you don't play matches against Ronaldo or Benzema every day. It's not normal for most footballers, so of course it is something special.
"When I signed for Al-Tai, I didn't expect all the stuff that has happened this year.
"My friends joke that I must have known what was coming, but honestly I feel lucky to be here to play with all these guys."
Semedo singles out fellow midfield enforcer N'Golo Kante, who joined Al-Ittihad in July following the expiry of his Chelsea contract.
"In Saudi, the toughest opponent so far is Kante," he says. "This guy is so good. He just doesn't stop running.
"He doesn't get tired. You turn around and he is there. He works so hard - he is a great footballer."
Portugal to Saudi Arabia - via the Championship
Semedo spent the 2020-21 campaign on loan at Reading, helping the Royals to a seventh-placed finish in the Championship
Semedo's career began in the much-admired academy of Benfica, where he played alongside Joao Felix and Ruben Dias, now at Barcelona and Manchester City respectively.
The pinnacle of his time with the Portuguese giants came when he ended an eight-game Champions League losing streak for the club with a late winner at AEK Athens during the 2018-19 group stage.
"I'm never going to forget that goal because it was the Champions League," Semedo recalls.
"When I was young, we watched the Champions League on TV, the goals and the celebrations.
"It was a dream. I remember when I went on the pitch, [striker] Jonas Goncalves Oliveira told me I was going to score.
"When I did, I was just running like crazy towards him. It was something special."
Before joining another Portuguese side, Vitoria Guimaraes, and then moving to Al-Tai, Semedo had loan spells in the English second tier with Nottingham Forest and Reading.
"That helped me a lot because in England, football is different," Semedo says.
"The intensity, the player development, the fans - all that stuff. The two years I played there helped me with the intensity I now play the game with, the way I look at the game.
"It was what I hoped I would get and I enjoyed it so much."
From lockdown to history?
After his immense frustration at the 2021 finals, Semedo's immediate target will be driving the Djurtus (Wild Dogs) to a first ever win at Afcon.
The West Africans are making their fourth consecutive appearance at the tournament but have lost six of their nine games since their debut in 2017.
"Last time I was locked down in my room for 10 days," Semedo adds.
"It was my first Africa Cup of Nations and I didn't get to help the team. This time, I want to be ready and I hope the coach calls on me.
"It means a lot every time I play for Guinea-Bissau because this is where I grew up, watching the national team. There is nothing like playing for your country."
Semedo says there has been a shift in the quality of players responding to call-ups because of the improved professionalism of Guinea-Bissau's football federation in recent years.
"Honestly, I think the most important part is organisation," he explains.
"When there is good organisation, you can bring good players in because they enjoy going to play for the national team.
"You don't want to feel like the experience is bad as then you ask yourself 'why am I doing this?'
"More and more, you can see players really want to travel back from Europe to play. They tell other players from Guinea-Bissau how positive it is, so then they want to play too."
Guinea-Bissau will face hosts Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea in Group A at the Nations Cup but can boast stability in the dugout.
Baciro Cande's Guinea-Bissau failed to score at the 2021 Nations Cup finals, drawing 0-0 with Sudan before defeats by Egypt and Nigeria in Group D
Baciro Cande has been head coach since 2016 - a far cry from the tally of four managers in the past 12 months for Semedo at club side Al-Tai.
"The coach has been here for a long time and so he knows the players well," Semedo says.
"He knows the system, the organisation. He has been able to build a good dynamic with the players.
"When someone new comes, he knows how to welcome them in. He knows the processes and he really understands us; we have a good relationship."
Semedo also feels Cande's status as a proud Bissau-Guinean should be celebrated among a host of foreign coaches taking charge of teams at Afcon.
"It is great because he knows the country, he feels every moment on the pitch," he says.
"He feels inside him that he wants to do something for our country. You can see this."
'We will keep dreaming'
Guinea-Bissau first entered Fifa World Cup qualifying in 1998 and had their strongest campaign yet in pursuit of a place at the 2022 tournament, finishing only behind Morocco, who went on to reach the semi-finals in Qatar, in the group stage.
They have taken four points from their first two Group A matches in 2026 World Cup qualifying, boosting Semedo's hopes of representing them at the finals.
"We have to dream of the World Cup," he says, calling their current attempt the nation's "best chance" of qualifying with at least nine places now on offer for Africa.
"This is football. We can compete with anyone in Africa, so why can we not believe it?
"We will always keep dreaming."
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