Egyptian Mohamed Salah, Gabon’s Aubameyang and Sadio Mane of Senegal will on Thursday battle for the prestigious African Player of the Year in Accra, Ghana.
The capital of Ghana, Accra, is abuzz and bracing up for unarguably the biggest football gathering of the new year, Aiteo CAF Awards 2017.
The trio of Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria), Chrestina Kgatlana (South Africa) and Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene (Cameroon) will also battle it out for the Women’s Player of the Year.
Stakeholders of the game are looking forward to the event as nominees and legends flock the Ghanaian capital for the much awaited event.
From Abedi Pele, winner of the maiden edition in 1992 through to Riyad Mahrez, crowned in 2016, the winners who represent various generations will be given prominence at the ceremony designed to celebrate the key players of African football.
Others are Nigerian trio, Emmanuel Amuneke, Nwankwo Kanu and Victor Ikpeba, Cameroonian and four-time winner, Samuel Eto’o Fils and compatriot Patrick Mboma, Ivorian Yaya Toure, a four-time winner and countryman Didier Drogba and El Hadji Diouf of Senegal.
The rest are Mustapha Hadji of Morocco, Malian Frederic Kanoute, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Gabon and Togolese Emmanuel Adebayor.
They will be joined by Liberia’s President-elect George Oppong Weah (who is the only African to have won the World Player of the Year title, and did a treble by also winning the European Player of the Year award in the same 1995).