penalty. It was a beautiful moment”.
Of course there were the bad tournaments, describing Angola 2010 as his “least favourite tournament by a million miles”, with general awkwardness compounding the horrors of the Togo national team bus attack. But even that had bright sparks – recounting a bizarre tale of Algerian and Egyptian journalists trading blows across the press box, whilst he crouched under his desk on the phone to Irish radio.
An excellent man to talk to with an easygoing attitude, despite the obvious intimidation of speaking to representative from SFG, he speaks with such passion about his job – one that almost any football-loving human would take in a heartbeat. You realise that there is whole other side the Africa Cup of Nations, one that is not so easily packaged up and presented on the television or the newspaper – something that is increasingly difficult to appreciate in a growing world of televised football. But whilst the tournament can be a bit of an ordeal at times, the reward in terms of richness and diversity of experience seems more than worth it.
By Sam Crocker (@sam_crock)
Guinea. “So I’m on this flight from Libreville to Bata, with a connection in Malabo. The flight was delayed – plane was rerouted to pick up some Chinese labourers from Sao Tome - and we end up landing 10 minutes before my next plane is due to take-off. Realising my plane to Bata is just across the tarmac, I ask the air steward if I can just run across. They say, “it’s alright, we’ll grab you a car”. So me and these four other guys jump in this car, speed off, before suddenly realising we haven’t got our bags, so we screech to a halt and turn around. We then have to go into the hold ourselves, grab our bags, before jumping back into the car and heading to Bata on the plane. That wouldn’t happen at the Euros”.
As well as the quirks, of course there has been some wonderful moments for Wilson during his time at tournaments, including what he calls his “best ever moment" as a sports journalist – the 2012 final between Ivory Coast and Zambia.
“Everyone in the press box was in bits”, he says, recalling that incredible night in Libreville. “Nobody was making eye contact, everyone was in the same state. The day before we went to a ceremony on the beach with the Zambian players, as they marched down in their tracksuits and laid bouquets of flowers, singing a Zambian song – the same one that Stoppila Sunzu was mouthing as he walked up to take the winning penalty. It was a beautiful moment”.