Mane awarded African player of the Year!
The finest African player of the year award has been given to Senegalese attacker Sadio Mane .
Nigerian Asisat Oshoala won the women’s division.
Mane is the first player from Bayern Munich to win the African Player of the Year award.
The Senegal side that defeated Salah-captained Egypt in the 2021/2022 Africa Cup of Nations final
and a 2022 World Cup play-off had Mane as a significant player.
The Teranga Lions prevailed in penalty shootouts in both the Cameroon match that decided the African championship
and the Senegal match that eliminated Qatar.
Salah‘s attempt in the play-off was unexpectedly wide,
and Mane scored in each shootout while the final result was known before Salah could take it.
Simba United of Tanzania’s Pape Ousmane Sakho won the prize for the best goal.
Desire Ellis, head coach of the South African women’s national team Banyana Banyana,
won the title of best female coach of the year.
Aliou Cisse of Senegal was named the year’s top male coach.
Salah won the prize in 2017 and 2018,
and Mane’s triumph the following year brought the total number of Liverpool winners to four. El Hadji Diouf
a different Senegalese,
took first place in the 2002 election.
Last month,
the 30-year-old quit the Premier League team after agreeing to a three-year contract with Bayern Munich.
Mane remarked, “I am truly honoured and overjoyed to get this award again.
“Thanks to my coaches,
my teammates on the club and national teams, and those friends who supported me through the tough times,”
Mane made the quick trip across the Atlantic to receive the accolade in the Moroccan capital
after scoring a penalty for his new team in a 6-2 preseason victory over DC United on Wednesday.
Following the cancellation of the previous two editions due to the coronavirus pandemic,
Mane won the continental player of the year award for the second consecutive year.
He triumphed over Edouard Mendy, a goalkeeper for Chelsea, and former Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah of Egypt.
Last season, Mane and Salah were instrumental in helping Liverpool win the FA Cup,
English League Cup, and finish second in the Premier League and Champions League.
Now then, Mane chose to depart,
with Bayern allegedly paying an initial 32 million euros ($32.5 million) that may increase to 41 million euros.
Salah has since signed a new contract at Anfield.
When Mane made his first move in Europe in 2012,
Red Bull Salzburg paid Metz four million euros as the transfer price.
After the Africa Cup of Nations final in Yaounde ended scoreless,
Mane’s fifth penalty kick in February gave Senegal a 4-2 shootout victory over Egypt and their first championship.
A month later, Mane defeated Egypt in a shootout to win the match,
this time in a World Cup play-off near Dakar following a 1-1 tie on the overall score.
match and missed his first Egyptian attempt in the play-off that gave Senegal a spot in the World Cup in Qatar this November.
Salah missed his opportunity to take a penalty in the Cup of Nations championship