The event may still seem distant. Four years and a few months. More than one Olympiad. But the 2026 Youth Games in Dakar, Senegal, added a new piece to their system on Tuesday February 22. It is important.
Senegal has a 50.000-seat stadium, inaugurated with great fanfare in the town of Diamniadio, around thirty kilometers from Dakar. The evening took on the appearance of a national event, and even a little better than that. As proof, the presence in the official gallery, alongside President Macky Sall, of six heads of state, from Turkey (Recep Tayyip Erdogan), Rwanda (Paul Kagamé), Liberia (George Weah), Germany ( Frank-Walter Steinmeier), Guinea-Bissau (Umaru Sissoco Embalo), and Gambia (Adama Barrow).
Other distinguished guests: FIFA President Gianni Infantino and President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), South African Patrice Motsepe.
The new Senegalese stadium, the first to meet international standards, was built in a year and a half by two Turkish companies. Announced cost: 156 billion CFA francs, or 238 million euros.
The compound is named after the former Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade. “ A tribute to his multidimensional, intellectual and pan-Africanist journey“, suggested the current head of state, Macky Sall, during the inauguration ceremony.
The new stadium is the second largest sports building in the country, after the Léopold Sédar Senghor stadium in Dakar, with a capacity of 60.000 seats, whose construction dates back to 1985. But above all it is the only one approved by the authorities football internationals. In May 2021, CAF withdrew its approval of the Lat Dior stadium, located in the Thiès region, approximately 70 km from Dakar.
In addition to a main field, the Abdoulaye Wade stadium is to house a football museum named in memory of the former Senegalese national team player, Papa Bouba Diop, who died in November 2020.
Very trendy: the stadium also has an independent solar power plant, with an announced power of two megawatts. Enough to make it almost self-sufficient in electricity, according to the Senegalese authorities. The town of Diamniadio is linked to Dakar by a new regional train, put into service last December.
In the near future, the venue must turn to football. Normal. Senegal won the last edition of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) at the start of the year. It ranks first in the FIFA rankings for the African continent. On the program for the coming weeks, a first major meeting between Senegal and Egypt, on March 29, for the play-offs for the 2022 World Cup.
But its destiny will also be Olympic. Macky Sall explained it without refraining from a certain lyricism, Tuesday February 22: “ This beautiful infrastructure dedicated to youth is an invitation to continue our path towards excellence"
At the top of the Senegalese president's list of priorities: the 2026 Youth Games in Dakar, the first Olympic meeting in history on the African continent. The country had obtained the organization for 2022. It was postponed by four years due to the health crisis.
According to Mbaye Jacques Diop, communications advisor to the Ministry of Sports, cited byAFP, Senegal intends to position itself in the years to come as a centerpiece of the development of sport in Africa. A strategy which should further strengthen the hosting of the Summer YOG in 2026. Its new stadium is part of the process of making Dakar “ a sports hub » on the scale of the continent. It will also prevent matches from being relocated to Asia.
