Unsurprisingly, Victor Osimhen won the title of African Player of the Year, better known as the African Ballon d’Or, this Monday evening at the CAF Awards ceremony in Marrakech, Morocco. While the Moroccan Yassine Bounou and the Algerian Riyad Mahrez, who seemed to represent his two most serious competitors, did not appear on the podium to everyone’s surprise, the Naples striker logically beat the two other finalists, Mohamed Salah (Egypt, Liverpool), crowned in 2017 and 2018, and Achraf Hakimi (Morocco, Paris Saint-Germain). Osimhen is the first Nigerian crowned since 1999 and the 4th Super Eagle in history to lift the trophy after Rashidi Yekini (1993), Emmanuel Amunike (1994), Nwankwo Kanu (1996, 1999) and Victor Ikpeba (1997). He finished 8th in the last Ballon d’Or, the highest ranked African in this edition.
The double for Nigeria Crowned Italian champion with Naples (a first in 33 years for Diego Maradona’s club), the former Lille player also finished top scorer in Serie A with 26 goals in 32 appearances and he was recently crowned best player in the championship as well. He also became the top African scorer in the history of Serie A by erasing Samuel Eto’o and George Weah from the shelves. Despite Nigeria’s absence at the 2022 World Cup, the native of Lagos therefore established himself as the inevitable successor to the Senegalese Sadio Mané, crowned in 2019 and 2022. Apart from his excellent 2022 World Cup, Hakimi had few arguments to oppose him, just like Salah, weighed down by Liverpool’s failed season despite a new harvest of goals. Also with the coronation of Asisat Oshoala, elected Women’s Player of the Year for the 6th time a few minutes earlier, Nigeria achieved quite a double!
source: afrik-foot.com
