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It’s official, Kunle Solaja, Mark Gleeson are Africa’s most capped World Cup journalists

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Kunle Solaja awarded a certificate of achievement and replica of World Cup trophy

In a simple but impressive ceremony, Kunle Solaja along with 81 other journalists across the globe were honoured by the AIPS in conjuction with FIFA in Doha on Tuesday.

With nine World Cup coverages under his belt, Nigeria’s Kunle Solaja and South Africa’s Mark Glesson, each with nine appearances at the World Cup are the only African decorated.

The replica World Cup trophy and certificate of achievement presented to Kunle Solaja

They were presented with certicicate of achievement and replica of the World Cup trophy. The certifciate is jointly signed by the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino and the AIPS president, Gianni Merlo.

The AIPS is the world body of sports journalists. The presenntation of the replica trophies was done by World Cup legend, Ronaldo of Brazil.

Among those honoured is the 88 year old Enrique Macaya Márquez, a freelance journalist from Argentina.

His 64 year association with the World Cup has seen him cover the global event in amazing  17 times, surpassing that of Uruguay’s Diego Lucero, who until his death in 1995was known to be the only man to have attended all World Cup finals from 1930.

Before his death, he was associated with the World Cup from 1930 to 1994.

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Shortly after the presentations, Solaja was selected for special interview by the FIFA TV.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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