The Africa Cup of Nations final between Algeria and Senegal in Cairo Friday will pit local coaches against each other in a title decider for the first time in 21 years.
Algerian Djamel Belmadi and Senegalese Aliou Cisse are both former national team midfielders whose playing careers included spells with English clubs.
Belmadi was loaned to Manchester City from Marseille in 2003 and later had two seasons with Southampton.
While Cisse spent most of his career at French clubs, he also lined up for Birmingham City and Portsmouth.
Cisse is particularly desperate to win in Cairo as his missed shootout penalty in the 2002 final against Cameroon condemned Senegal to defeat in their only previous final appearance.
The last final featuring two African coaches was in 1998 when Egypt, coached by Mahmoud el Gohary, defeated Ephraim 'Jomo' Sono-coached South Africa 2-0 in Ouagadougou.
An endless debate among African football followers is the merits of local and foreign coaches and the Cup of Nations offers no help because foreigners have won 16 titles and locals 15.
Egyptian Hassan Shehata holds the record for consecutive triumphs with three and Ghanaian Charles Gyamfi has also won three, but not in a row.
France-born Herve Renard is the only coach to win with two countries, guiding outsiders Zambia to success in 2012 and repeating the feat with the Ivory Coast three years later.
Cup of Nations-winning coaches
1957 Egypt
Mourad Fahmy
1959 Egypt
Pal Titkos (HUN)
1962 Ethiopia
Ydnekatchew Tessema
1963 Ghana
Charles Gyamfi
1965 Ghana
Charles Gyamfi
1968 Zaire
Ferenc Csanadi (HUN)
1970 Sudan
Jir? Starosta (CZE)
1972 Congo
Adolphe Bibanzoulou
1974 Zaire
Blagoje Vidinic (SRB)
1976 Morocco
Gheorghe Mardarescu (ROM) 1978 Ghana
Fred Osam-Duodu
1980 Nigeria
Otto Gloria (BRA)
1982 Ghana
Charles Gyamfi
1984 Cameroon
Radivoje Ognjanovic (SRB) 1986 Egypt
Mike Smith (WAL)
1988 Cameroon
Claude le Roy (FRA)
1990 Algeria
Abdelhamid Kermali
1992 I. Coast
Yeo Martial
1994 Nigeria
Clemens Westerhof (NED)
1996 S. Africa Clive Barker
1998 Egypt
Mahmoud el-Gohary
2000 Cameroon
Pierre Lechantre (FRA)
2002 Cameroon
Winfried Schaefer (GER)
2004 Tunisia
Roger Lemerre (FRA)
2006 Egypt
Hassan Shehata
2008 Egypt
Hassan Shehata
2010 Egypt
Hassan Shehata
2012 Zambia
Herve Renard (FRA)
2013 Nigeria
Stephen Keshi
2015 I.
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