Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita of Liverpool nominated for the 2022 African Player of the Year award
Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita have been named on the 30-man shortlist for the 2022 African Player of the Year award, as confirmed by CAF’s Twitter account.
The list contains 30 of the best players from the African continent over the past year. Senegal won the AFCON against Egypt so it was expected that these two nations would have the most representatives on the nominees’ list.
Senegal have five, while Egypt and Morocco have four players on the shortlist. Keita is the shining light in an underwhelming Guinea team.
Sadio Mane, who sealed a move to Bayern Munich from LFC earlier this month, would be one of the favourites to land the award. He led the Lions of Teranga to their first-ever AFCON title while having one of his best seasons at club level with the Reds.
Salah for the win!
Riyad Mahrez was impressive for Manchester City while Achraf Hakimi and Kalidou Koulibaly are other big names on a star-studded list. Salah would also be a strong contender for the award.
He was superb for the Reds, at least for the first half of last season, and led Egypt to an AFCON final. He could have also taken them to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this year if not for Mane’s Senegal.
The award is set to take place on July 21 later this year in Morocco. It has been resumed after a two-year hiatus after the Covid-19 pandemic crippled footballing activities on a global scale.
More Liverpool News:
- Transfer News: Liverpool dismiss links to FC Porto winger Otavio
- Liverpool will have to break transfer record to sign Borussia Dortmund target Jude Bellingham
- Transfer News: Fulham turn attention from Liverpool right-back Neco Williams to Kevin Mbabu
The last winner of the award was Mane in 2019 during his time at Liverpool. Salah won the award in 2018 and 2017. Hopefully, the Egyptian wins it for the third time. As much as we love Mane, he isn’t wearing Liverpool red anymore.
