Another chapter within the private rivalry between former Liverpool teammates Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah will play out in Rabat on Thursday when the annual African award winners are introduced.
Senegal’s Sadio Mane (C) controls the ball throughout the World Cup 2022 qualifying soccer match between Senegal and Egypt on the Me Abdoulaye Wade Stadium in Diamniadio on 29 March 2022. Picture: SEYLLOU/AFP
JOHANNESBURG – Another chapter within the private rivalry between former Liverpool teammates Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah will play out in Rabat on Thursday when the annual African award winners are introduced.
Mane was a key determine within the Senegal group that defeated Salah-captained Egypt within the 2021/2022 Africa Cup of Nations ultimate and in a 2022 World Cup play-off.
Both the African title decider in Cameroon and the Qatar eliminator in Senegal have been gained by the Teranga Lions after penalty shootouts.
Mane scored in every shootout whereas the ultimate was determined earlier than Salah may take his kick, and he blazed broad within the play-off.
The Senegalese successes have made Mane favorite to win a second straight Player of the Year award after 2019 – the next two editions have been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Should Mane win within the Moroccan capital, he’ll change into the primary Bayern Munich star to be voted the top African footballer.
The closest a participant from the German giants has come to profitable was in 1999 and 2001 when Ghanaian Samuel Kuffour completed second.
Mane moved to Bayern final month on a three-year deal after becoming a member of Liverpool in 2016 from Southampton and Anfield boss Jurgen Klopp calls him “a complete forward”.
“My only criticism of Sadio is that maybe at times he is the only one not to realise just how good he is.”
Liverpool defender Andy Robertson hailed the predatory instincts of the 30-year-old: “Whenever he is in front of the goal you do not think he will miss.”
Salah lifted the award in 2017 and 2018 and the victory of Mane the next 12 months raised to 4 the variety of winners from Liverpool with one other Senegalese, El Hadji Diouf, topping the 2002 vote.
SOUTH AFRICANS DOMINATE WOMEN HOPEFULS
The Egyptian had an excellent 2021-2022 season for the Reds, sharing the Golden Boot award with South Korean Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur.
Salah was voted Premier League Player of the Season by each the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Football Writers’ Association.
Algeria captain and Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez is the opposite former winner among the many 10 nominees having come first in 2016 after serving to rank outsiders Leicester City change into Premier League champions.
Mahrez and Algeria have struggled currently, nevertheless, with the defending champions making a humiliating first spherical exit from the Cup of Nations, then dropping a World Cup play-off in opposition to Cameroon.
The 10 candidates for the Club Player of the Year embrace Brazilian Tiago Azulao, whose chart-topping seven objectives within the CAF Champions League took Angolan outfit Petro Luanda to a shock semi-finals spot.
South Africans dominate the Women’s Player of the Year nominees with 2018 winner Thembi Kgatlana, Andile Dlamini, Refiloe Jane and Bambanani Mbane amongst 10 hopefuls.
Ghana, notable absentees from the continued Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco after dropping a primary spherical qualifier in opposition to Nigeria, have two representatives, Evelyn Badu and Doris Boaduwaa.
Nigeria, the powerhouse of girls’s soccer in Africa for a long time, have one candidate, extremely adorned Asisat Oshoala, who performs for 2022 European Champions League runners-up Barcelona.
Ruled out of the Cup of Nations in Morocco by harm, Oshoala has been voted African Player of the Year 4 occasions, most not too long ago in 2019.
Choosing the very best ladies’s nationwide group shall be delayed till after the Cup of Nations ultimate between Morocco and South Africa in Rabat on Saturday.
African soccer legends, CAF technical committee members, coaches and captains of nationwide groups and of some golf equipment and chosen media decide the winners.