Nigeria Missing As CAF Releases Final List For 2022 Awards

Super Eagles’ duo of Moses Simon and Akinkunmi Amoo have failed to make the final list of nominees for the men’s categories of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards 2022.

France-based Simon, who plays for FC Nantes and Amoo of Danish side FC Copenhagen, were the only Nigerians to make the first list released by CAF on June 30.

However, when the final list was released on Monday, the two players were not part of the elite African performers in the last few months, who made the top list.

Earlier, Simon was listed for the Player of the Year award, while Amoo was listed for the Young Player of the Year award.

A statement on the CAF website revealed that the star-studded final list of nominees for the men’s categories included Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Riyad Mahrez, as well as some of the elite performers in the last few months.

The list included reigning CAF African Player of the Year, Sadio Mane (Senegal and Bayern Munich), former winner Riyad Mahrez (Algeria and Manchester City), Mohamed Salah (Egypt and Liverpool) amongst others.

One of the highly contested categories is that of the CAF Coach of the Year, where Aliou Cisse, Pitso Mosimane, Carlos Queiroz, Tom Saintfiet and Walid Regragui had made the final cut.

The Player of the Year and Interclub Player of the Year had 10 nominees each, whilst the Young Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, National Team of the Year and Club of the Year had five nominees each.

The winners of each category would be decided by a voting panel, made up of CAF Technical Committee, media professionals, Head Coaches, Captains of Member Associations and clubs involved at the group stage of the Interclub competitions for the 2021/2022 season.

The full list of nominees (in alphabetical order by Member Association) Player of the Year  (Men) includes Riyad Mahrez (Algeria and Manchester City), Karl Toko Ekambi (Cameroon and Olympique Lyonnais) and Vincent Aboubacar (Cameroon and Al Nassr).

Others are  Sebastien Haller (Cote D’Ivoire  and Ajax), Mohamed Salah (Egypt and Liverpool), Naby Keita (Guinea and Liverpool), Achraf Hakimi (Morocco and Paris Saint-Germain), Edouard Mendy (Senegal and Chelsea), Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal and Napoli)

Sadio Mane (Senegal and Bayern Munich) completed the list.

For the Interclub Player of the Year (Men) are Tiago Azulao (Petro Atletico), Karim Konate

(ASEC Mimosas), Aliou Dieng (Al Ahly), Ali Maaloul (Al Ahly), Percy Tau (Al Ahly), Mohamed Sherif (Al Ahly), Mohamed El Shenawy (Al Ahly) and  Achraf Dari (Wydad Athletic Club).

Listed for the Young Player of the Year (Men) are Dango Ouattara (Burkina Faso and Lorient), Karim Konate (Cote D’Ivoire and ASEC/RB Salzburg),Kamaldeen Sulemana (Ghana and Rennes), Pape Matar Sarr (Senegal and Metz)..