Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gana Gueye return to Finch Farm

Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gana Gueye were received as heroes following their return to Finch Farm after a victorious Africa Cup of Nations campaign with Senegal.

Ndiaye and Gana led the Lions of Teranga to the top continental honour for the second time in their history after beating hosts Morocco 1-0 in the extra time of a controversy-marred final in Rabat.

Senegal topped Group D by goal difference with 3-0 wins over Botswana and Benin and secured a 1-1 draw with second-placed DR Congo. They beat Sudan 3-1 in the round of 16 before securing 1-0 wins over Mali and Egypt in the quarter and semi-finals.

Ndiaye scored the only goal in the quarter-final while Gueye provided the assist to Pape Gueye’s 94th-minute winner in the final. With Kalidou Koulibaly suspended, Gueye also captained Senegal in the final against Morocco.

The two players received a guard of honour from their teammates as they returned to training at Finch Farm. “They’ve only walked in the building about half an hour ago, so I only shouted out of the window at them but nothing else. I’ve not had a chance to greet them and congratulate them, so they’ve just arrived back,” David Moyes said in the pre-match press conference when asked whether his star players would be included in the squad to face Leeds United on Monday.

Reader Comments (26)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()

John Collins 2 Posted 24/01/2026 at 18:25:18

Rightly so.

A tremendous achievement from our two players

Martin Scott 3 Posted 24/01/2026 at 20:06:57

Should not be lauded, disgraceful scenes last week...

Derek Knox 4 Posted 24/01/2026 at 21:30:09

Great gesture along with the illumination of Hill Dickinson Stadium in Senegal flag colours!

Derek Knox 5 Posted 24/01/2026 at 21:32:30

Martin @ 3, come on mate that was hardly down to our guys was it ?

Paul Griffiths 6 Posted 24/01/2026 at 22:06:05

Embarrassing. Celebrating cheats. Derek, veteran Gana walked off the pitch and Ndiaye headed off to the dressing room. What an embarrassing picture. No chance it will not be repeated on Monday. More this time public embarrassment.

The club and players -- it's perfectly legitimate to walk off the pitch if you are unhappy with controversial ref/VAR decisions.

I'm looking forward to Senegal's punishment. I'd like to see them lose the cup and our two 'heroes' lose their gold medals.

Ian Bennett 8 Posted 24/01/2026 at 22:29:59

Ndiaye had been subbed. And to be fair the camera looked like he was finding out what the fuck was going on.

Mane was the one who wanted to carry on.

Paul Hewitt 9 Posted 24/01/2026 at 22:38:35

Why some are getting worked up about the Afcon is a mystery. Who cares?

The two players are back, that's all that matters.

John Collins 10 Posted 24/01/2026 at 22:38:49

Gana and Illy should have stayed on the pitch and played Morocco on their own, apparently.

Mike Gaynes 11 Posted 25/01/2026 at 01:38:13

Oh, yes, their friends and teammates definitely should have snubbed them and frozen them out instead of welcoming them home. Uh-huh.

(eye roll)

Paul Griffiths 12 Posted 25/01/2026 at 02:52:12

Gaynes - a referee, apparently - sanctions players leaving a pitch because they do not agree with a ref/VAR decision. In fact, said that the cheats should get a 'parade of honour'.

This is an apparent referee posting

Eyes roll! Head Shakes!!!

Paul Griffiths 13 Posted 25/01/2026 at 03:27:56

Graham - 7 - I don't eat chips. Horrid greasy little fatty things.

Thanks for the articulate response that raises so many interesting issues and questions. You clearly have one view of Senegal's cheating shenanigans and I have another. I'm glad that I have mine.

Graham, if in the 92nd minute on Monday we get a second dodgy decision from the ref/VAR and Calvert-Lewin is waiting ball in hand to take the pen, it would be ace and proper, wouldn't it, if we just fucked off from the pitch?

I think that everyone should do it.

Annika Herbert 14 Posted 25/01/2026 at 06:25:45

Paul @ 6, whilst I can understand your anger at what went on in the Afcon final, who would you suggest the trophy is handed to if it's taken away from Senegal?

Given the fact you consider Senegal cheats, surely you wouldn't want to see the trophy awarded to Morocco?

Seeing as how Morocco also cheated in providing sub-standard facilities for everyone they played, including training pitches. Not to mention the pathetic efforts of the ball boys to throw away the goalkeeper's towels.

I am not, in any way, defending the action Senegal took. But Morocco were equally as bad in my opinion.

Annika, of course it should go to Morocco mate.

Annika, Morocco are not the first, nowhere near the only, and will be nowhere near the last to use home advantage in these ways. It's not cheating. It's shitty gamesmanship and I hate it. It's part of the game nowadays.

But cowardly walking off the pitch if you do not like a VAR/REF decision is not.

Ian Bennett 17 Posted 25/01/2026 at 07:55:40

They were walked off by the manager Paul.

What do you think most captains and players would do, if the management ordered them off the pitch? I am not sure many players would totally defy the manager. Only Sadio Mane did, and he's a world star that can stand up to what he likes.

I don't agree with it, nor the terrible decisions before that ruled out a legitimate goal. From a neutral, it looked more than just home advantage in the semi & final.

Tony Abrahams 18 Posted 25/01/2026 at 09:05:52

I remember the day I knew Sean Dyche's time was definitely coming towards the end, and I genuinely felt like walking out of the stadium.

Brentford got a man sent off, and some people on ToffeeWeb surprised me when they agreed with the decision. (The amount of subjectivity is incredible because we all see a different game.) The red card was later rescinded, but it took me a lot longer to get our embarrassing second-half performance out of my head.

During that second-half performance, it became embarrassingly clear that Dyche had stopped working on how to attack and score goals, and a part of me wished I had walked out of the stadium at half-time because I was disgusted at the sending off.

Paul, you think it's cowardly to walk off the pitch but not everyone takes decisions lying down and it was clear to a lot of people that Senegal had just been cheated in a major final.

If I'd have been away with my football team for a month and was being cheated in a major final, I'd have done the same if I was on the pitch, because I think cheating is abhorrent.

Maybe you feel different because you can justify gamesmanship, Paul, but how could you justify the two decisions that had just been given by the referee, and say that Senegal hadn't also just been cheated?

John Collins 19 Posted 25/01/2026 at 09:11:10

Imo they deserve the guard of honour, having won the most prestigious trophy an African man can win, it can only be good for team spirit.

The alternative suggested elsewhere on these pages is to shun them?

Steve Brown 22 Posted 25/01/2026 at 09:54:03

Gueye stayed out on the pitch for the entire walkout. Not sure what Ndiaye did.

The responsibility lies with the manager.

Mike Powell 24 Posted 25/01/2026 at 11:16:08

Well done to Ndiaye and Gana, you deserve that guard of honour.

As for walking off the pitch, that was down to the manager. Glad both are back injury-free.

Raymond Fox 27 Posted 25/01/2026 at 13:36:50

The end of the final was a digrace, sadly winning at any cost is the name of the game now.

Tony, we don't usually disagree but I thought it was a stonewall penalty, he was pulled over from behind.

John Collins 28 Posted 25/01/2026 at 13:40:48

Raymond, I understand your opinion and thoughts.

My own thoughts are I would like to one day see my club as one that wins at any cost. I've had enough of being every other club's best mate.

31 Posted 25/01/2026 at 16:46:30

Fair enough, Raymond, I just saw an attacking player take up a position in the middle of the 6-yard box, who was there to be a nuisance but with no real intentions of looking to challenge by attacking the ball.

He got strong-armed, and I have seen them given before, just like the Moroccan defender had been strong-armed a minute earlier when Senegal also had a goal ruled out.

You could therefore argue that the referee was consistent, but my own view of it was that good strong aggression had just been punished twice. Like I said in an earlier post, a lot of these decisions are very subjective because we all see different things.