On Tuesday night Sadio Mane won his first African Player Of The Year award in Egypt beating Mo Salah and Riyad Mahrez to the award
The African Player Of The Year first started back in 1992 and it’s run by Confederation of African Football. Originally the award was done through France Football and the African Footballer Of The Year Golden Ball award was given out.
Since the new award started, Yaya Toure and Samuel Eto’o are the most successful players. They have both won the award four times in their careers, with Yaya winning his four games in a row from 2012-2015.
This year it was between Salah, Mahrez and Mane. Mane beat both of them to win his first award and it was very much deserved. In the 2018/19 season, he scored 30 goals and this season he has 15 goals so far. Mane has been in the top three of the award for the last years.
Mane was due to go to a party in Senegal with the countries president but wasn’t able to go. This was because of a clash of schedules with Liverpool but since he has said he is going to go back to Senegal to celebrate. Mane has made it no secret about his desire to win the African Player Of The Year. As a child, his hero was El Hadji Diouf who is the only other Senegalese player to win the award.
OH MY 🤩🤩🤩 pic.twitter.com/oGMmaylfTI
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 8, 2020
With Mane winning the award, they now have had four winners of the African Player Of The Year. This is the join most with Marseille and Man City. Liverpool’s four winners have been Diouf, Salah twice and Mane.
The Premier League was also well represented in the African Best 11. Six players from the Premier League were Matip, Aurier, Salah, Mane, Mahrez and Aubameyang.
Mane has had a fantastic season so far and is the favourite to win the PFA Player Of The Year off his teammate Virgil Van Dijk. He is at 11/10 with his Liverpool teammate Trent Alexander Arnold at 6/1. Liverpool are looking to win their first Premier League title this year and are 13 points clear and looking like its definitely going to happen.
