Italian reports confirmed that Napoli striker, Nigerian Victor Osimhen, won the African Player of the Year award for the year 2023, after he was absent from his team’s training to attend the CAF Awards ceremony on Monday evening.
Osimhen is competing for the Best African Player award for the year 2023 with the Egyptian duo Mohamed Salah, a professional with Liverpool, and the right-back of Paris Saint-Germain, the Moroccan Ashraf Hakimi.
The Italian newspaper "La Repubblica" reported that Osimhen did not participate in the training session this morning with his team, Napoli, because he took a special flight from Capodichino Airport heading to Morocco, where he will attend the annual awards ceremony of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The newspaper did not mention whether Osimhen’s absence from this morning’s training session had been agreed upon with his club.
According to the Italian newspaper "Corriere dello Sport", Osimhen's travel to Morocco means that he is the closest to winning the award, especially since Napoli awaits him with a fateful match in 24 hours.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, Napoli will play against Sporting Braga in the sixth and final round of the Champions League group stage.
Napoli will qualify for the final 16 if it avoids defeat by Braga by two goals or more. Otherwise, the Italians will finish third and compete in the Europa League play-off.
Osimhen, who ranked eighth in France Football magazine's Ballon d'Or, was on the final list of candidates to win the African Ballon d'Or for the 2022-2023 season, after leading his Napoli team last season to win the Italian League title for the first time in nearly 30 years, where the striker topped the list. The Nigerian international is a list of top scorers in Serie A.
Will Salah win the crown again and equal the achievement of the legends? The record of African Ballon d’Or winners since the award was established
On Monday, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), at its annual ceremony in Marrakesh, Morocco, will present its prestigious award for the best African player of the year, more commonly known as the African Golden Ball.
The Best African Player of the Year Award is an award given every year to the best African player and was organized for the first time in 1970 by the French magazine “France Football” until 1994, then by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from 1992 to the present time.
Retired Cameroonian stars Samuel Eto'o and Ivorian player Yaya Toure top the list of players who have won the Player of the Year award in Africa, having won it four times, while Liberian football legend George Weah and Ghanaian football legend Abedi Pele occupy second place in the list of most African Ballon d'Or winners, with three balls. For both of them.
The Egyptian Mohamed Salah, his former Liverpool teammate, the Senegalese Sadio Mane, the latter’s compatriot El Hadji Diouf, and the Ivorian Didier Drogba come in third place, as each of them was crowned with the prestigious award on two occasions.
Salah will be able to rise to the runner-up position alongside George Weah Abedi Pele if he is crowned today for the third time, as he competes with Moroccan Achraf Hakimi, a professional in the ranks of Paris Saint-Germain, and the striker of the Italian club Napoli and the Nigerian national team, Victor Osmin.
The following is the record of African Ballon d'Or winners since the award was established:
* Register of award winners sponsored by the African Union
- 2022.. Sadio Mane (Senegal)
- 2021.. The award was not awarded due to the outbreak of the Corona virus
- 2020.. The award was not awarded due to the outbreak of the Corona virus
- 2019 - Sadio Mane (Senegal)
- 2018 - Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
- 2017: Mohamed Salah (Egypt)
- 2016: Riyad Mahrez (Algeria)
- 2015: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon)
- 2014: Yaya Toure (Côte d'Ivoire)
- 2013: Yaya Toure (Côte d'Ivoire)
- 2012: Yaya Toure (Côte d'Ivoire)
- 2011: Yaya Toure (Côte d'Ivoire)
- 2010: Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon)
- 2009: Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire)
- 2008: Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo)
- 2007: Frederic Kanoute (Mali)
- 2006: Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast)
- 2005: Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon)
- 2004: Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon)
- 2003: Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon)
- 2002: El Hadji Diouf (Senegal)
- 2001: El Hadji Diouf (Senegal)
- 2000: Patrick Mboma (Cameroon)
- 1999: Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria)
- 1998: Mustafa Haji (Morocco)
- 1997: Victor Ikpeba (Nigeria)
- 1996: Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria)
- 1995: George Weah (Liberia)
- 1994: Emmanuel Amunike (Nigeria)
- 1993: Rashidi Yakini (Nigeria)
- 1992: Abedi Pele (Ghana)
* Record of winners of the award when it was sponsored by “France Football” magazine.
- 1994: George Weah (Liberia)
- 1993: Abedi Pele (Ghana)
- 1992: Abedi Pele (Ghana)
- 1991: Abedi Pele (Ghana)
- 1990: Roger Milla (Cameroon)
- 1989: George Weah (Liberia)
- 1988: Kalusha Bwalya (Zambia)
- 1987: Rabah Madjer (Algeria)
- 1986: Badou Zaki (Morocco)
- 1985: Mohamed Taymoumi (Morocco)
- 1984: Theophile Abega (Cameroon)
- 1983: Mahmoud Al-Khatib (Egypt)
- 1982: Thomas Nkono (Cameroon)
- 1981: Lakhdar Belloumi (Algeria)
- 1980: Jean Manga Ongheni (Cameroon)
- 1979: Thomas Nkono (Cameroon)
- 1978: Karim Abdul Razak (Ghana)
- 1977: Tariq Diab (Tunisia)
- 1976: Roger Milla (Cameroon)
- 1975: Ahmed Fares (Morocco)
- 1974: Paul Mukela (Republic of the Congo)
- 1973: Buanga Chimene (Republic of Zaire)
- 1972: Sherif Soleimani (Guinea)
- 1971: Ibrahim Sunday (Ghana)
- 1970: Salif Keita (Mali)