Achraf Hakimi, Ademola Lookman Lead the Pack for CAF Men’s Player of the Year Award
CAF announces the top five nominees in each of the seven men’s categories ahead of the December ceremony in Marrakech, Morocco.
Update: This page has been updated to reflect the most recent developments as of 7 p.m. GMT+1.
Five players are now vying for the CAF African Player of the Year (Men) award’s three finalist spots. Leading the pack of nominees is last year's finalist Achraf Hakimi, who played a pivotal role in Morocco’s first Olympic medal in football.
The current favorite for the award is Ademola Lookman, hero of Atalanta’s Europa League final win this summer and a major contributor to Nigeria’s run to winning silver at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in January. He has continued to strengthen his case for the award with a strong start to the season for his Italian club side, scoring 8 goals and registering 5 assists in 13 matches across the Italian Serie A and the UEFA Champions League.
Completing the five-player shortlist are Simon Adingra, an integral part of the Ivorian team’s AFCON triumph in January, Guinean striker Serhou Guirassy — who had a sizzling season in the German league with Stuttgart, scoring 28 goals in the same number of games — and South African Goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
Williams is the only goalkeeper on the shortlist, thanks to a heroic AFCON quarter-final performance where he saved four penalties to help Bafana Bafana into the competition’s semi-final for the first time in four years. Williams is also on the shortlist for the men’s Goalkeeper of the Year as well as the Interclub Player of the Year award
The other players vying for the goalkeeper award are Egypt’s Mostafa Shobeir, Nigeria’s Stanley Nwabali, Côte d'Ivoire’s Yahia Fofana and Cameroon’s Andre Onana.
Initially, ten players were shortlisted as contenders for the men’s CAF African Player of the Year award. Soufiane Rahimi, who scored eight goals during the Paris Olympics run, was the second Moroccan on the list, while Super Eagles team captain William Troost-Ekong, a long-term stalwart for his country, was the other Nigerian on the list. Other players on the Top 10 list were Algeria’s Amine Gouiri, Edmond Tapsoba of Burkina Faso and Chancel Mbemba of DR Congo.
The men’s Coach of the Year shortlist features a mix of national team coaches and club managers. Leading the pack are AFCON-winning coach, Emerse Fae of Côte d’Ivoire, and Marcel Koller, who guided Egypt’s Al Ahly to a record-setting 12th CAF Champions League title. Also in the running are Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos, DR Congo’s Sebastien Desabre and Angola’s Pedro Goncalves.
Meanwhile, Morocco, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, DR Congo and South Africa will be hoping to be among the finalists for the men’s National Team of the Year award.
The shortlists for the seven men’s categories – including interclub award categories – at the CAF Awards will be trimmed to three finalists before the award ceremony, which is scheduled to take place in Marrakech, Morocco, on December 16.
See the full list here.