Liverpool’s Sadio Mané has been named African Footballer of the Year for the first time after beating teammate Mohamed Salah and Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez, while Barcelona and Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala was named as women’s player of the year.
The Senegal forward received his award from four-time winner Samuel Eto’o at a star-studded ceremony in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada in Egypt, which was also attended by former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger although Salah was not in attendance. Having finished as runner-up to the Egypt forward for the last two years, Mané becomes the second Senegalese to win the award after another Liverpool player, El Hadji-Diouf, in 2001 and 2002.
Algeria were named as men’s team of the year, with Djamel Belmadi picking up the coaching award. Cameroon, who were beaten by England at the Women’s World Cup last summer, were named women’s team of the year.
As well as helping Liverpool to victory in the Champions League final in June, Mané shared the Premier League Golden Boot with Salah and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after a momentous season for African players in English football. The 27-year-old has continued his good form into this season having already scored 11 league goals in Liverpool’s brilliant start to the campaign that sees them lead the table by 13 points from Leicester having scored 36 goals in total during 2019.
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