Mo Salah fails to win the African Footballer of the Year despite beating the winner.
Mohamed Salah has been overlooked for the 2023 African Footballer of the Year award despite scoring more goals than this year’s winner.
Salah met Nigerian Victor Osimhen (Napoli) and Moroccan Achiraf Hakimi (PSG) at a ceremony held in Marrakech on Monday evening. It was Osimhen who topped the vote that night, his success having been telegraphed hours before as the only contestant present at the event.
The 24-year-old has scored 26 goals in 32 Serie A games this year and five goals in five games for Nigeria and has been credited with playing a big part in Napoli’s title push in the 2022/23 season .
Osimhen is the first winner of the award, with Liverpool players receiving the award in the last four award ceremonies: Salah in 2017 and 2018, Sadio Mane in 2019 and 2022 after the coronavirus break.
Salah, who scored his 200th goal for Liverpool on Saturday, was conspicuous by his absence from the awards ceremony despite his deserved win.
Among Europe’s top five clubs in 2023, the only players to score more goals than Salah (28 goals, 19 assists) are Erling Haaland (44 goals, 12 assists) and Harry Kane (40 goals, 9 assists) decisive).
Kylian Mbappe (39 goals, 8 assists) is tied with Salah and Lautaro Martinez (36 goals, 9 assists) is in the top five. Liverpool’s number 11 has scored one more goal than Osimhen this year and 13 more than the Nigerian striker, who scored 33 goals (27 goals, 6 assists) in all competitions for Napoli.
Of course, goals and assists aren’t everything when it comes to trophies, but there is a strong case for Salah to win the award for a third time. Liverpool shared the African Footballer of the Year title with Marseille and Manchester City, with players from all three clubs winning the title four times.
Only Samuel Eto’o (4), Yaya Toure (4), George Weah (3) and Abedi Pele (3) have won more titles than Salah, tied with Mane, Didier Drogba, Roger Milla and Nwankwo Kanu. He Hadji Diouf. Salah became the second Egyptian to win the title after Mahmoud El Khatib in 1983.
