Salah, Mane, Aubameyang battle for AITEO CAF player award

 

Who wins the 2017 African Footballer of the Year award? Answer to that will be provided tomorrow when the AITEO CAF awards take place in Accra, Ghana.

Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang are the three players left to battle for the gong last won by Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez.

Egypt’s Mohamed Salah played a pivotal role in securing a World Cup slot for his country – their first in 28 years. Salah’s Liverpool mate Mane has been in devastating form in recent years. The Senegalese was the second runner-up to Mahrez in 2016.

Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has also been consistent in form for the past three years, winning the title in 2015 and coming second in 2014 and 2016.

Nigerians will particularly show interest in some categories in their compatriots and the country are in the running for honours.

Gernot Rohr is up against Hector Cuper and Hussein Amoutta for the Coach of the Year award. The German guided Nigeria to a place in the Russia 2018 World Cup with one match to spare, while Cuper led Egypt to their first World Cup berth since 1990. Amoutta on his part coached the Wydad Casablanca team that won the 2017 CAF Champions League title.

Asisat Oshoala is in the running for her third Women’s Player of the Year award and has Christina Kgatlana and Cameroon’s Gabrielle Onguene to contend with.

The Super Eagles face, the first African team to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, battle Cameroon, who won their fifth African title in the year under review and Egypt for the National Team of the Year award. The Pharaohs were runners-up at the 2017 African Cup of Nations.

The Falconets, Nigeria’s female U-20 team, are also in the running for the Women’s National Team of the Year award, together with the Ghana U-20 side and the South African national female team.

This year’s awards will welcome past winners of the African Footballer of the Year award and these include Ghana’s Abedi Pele, Mustapha Hadji, Patrick Mboma, El Hadji Diouf, Samuel Eto’o Fils, Didier Drogba, Frederic Kanoute, Emmanuel Adebayor, Yaya Toure, Riyad Mahrez and Aubameyang, who will aslo be there on the night as a contestant.

Past winners from Nigeria expected to be in Ghana tonight are two-time winner Kanu Nwankwo, Emmanuel Amuneke and Victor Ikpeba. The only other former winner from Nigeria, Rashidi Yekini is deceased.

Also expected to add glamour to the ceremony today is Liberia’s president-elect George Weah, who was the winner in 1995 – the same year he emerged World Footballer of the Year – the only African to achieve the feat till date.