🎵 OneFootball x Sampa the Great: AFCON is like African Christmas | OneFootball

As part of OneFootball's collaboration series with Shoot Music we're interviewing an artist every week about their love of football.

With the African Cup of Nations just around the corner, we've spoken to singer, rapper and Zambia fan, Sampa the Great

How do you think Zambia will perform at AFCON 2025?

I’m confident they will be strong and have a good chance of winning. We still are the underdogs having one AFCON win under our belt. It would be beautiful to reclaim that past glory with another victory!

I was at university in the States when we won in 2012. I watched it online with a pretty bad streaming connection but it changed the whole country and Zambians in the diaspora. We cried!

It made us proud to be Zambians and it also gave us much pride to honour the former national team, who lost their lives in Gabon. One of whom was a relative. 

For any new AFCON-watchers, can you give us one Zambian player to look out for at the tournament?

Patson Daka would be our superstar to watch out for. He currently plays for Leicester City.  

If not Zambia, which nation do you think will win AFCON 2025?

DR Congo and Côte d’Ivoire both have a strong chance.

What are you looking forward to most during the tournament?

As much as it’s a competition that has friendly rows between spectators online, it’s one of the things that brings the whole continent together and I love that feeling for us as Africans. It’s an African Christmas to be honest. 

Tell us about your new single 'Can’t Hold Us’…

Can’t Hold Us is an anthem about not letting setbacks and obstacles in our lives hold us back. The confidence in knowing together we’re stronger than alone.

You can watch the video for 'Can't Hold Us' here

You can follow Sampa on Instagram: @sampa_the_great