JOHANNESBURG — Ivory Coast defender Kolo Toure believes Ghana are the favourites to win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

The Black Stars aim at winning the tournament in South Africa for the first time in 31 years.

Ghana is, however, without big name players such as Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, John Mensah and Andre Ayew for various reasons.

The team is nonetheless being touted as one of the favourites to win the competition that kicks off on Saturday.

And Toure, whose side are the overwhelming favourites to end their own trophy drought that spans over two decades, says Ghana is rather the team to beat.

“No (responding to whether indeed the Ivory Coast are favourites) everybody is always saying that, but I think Ghana is the one,” he told Kumasi-based Angel FM.

“Because they are playing well and they have a great team and in the last World Cup they were the best African team.

“Egypt didn’t have a lot of big players, but they won it three times. You don’t need to have big players to win Afcon.”

Ghana goes into the competition having won all two friendly games against Egypt and Tunisia quite impressively.

The Black Stars will play their Group B opener on Sunday against DR Congo after which they face Mali and Niger in the other group games.