By John Essien
The Confederation Of African Football (CAF) on Thursday released a 30-player nominees from 13 countries contending to sit on the throne of African football.
Super Eagles forward Moses Simon, who currently plays for Ligue 1 club side FC Nantes is the only Nigerian player nominated for the African Player of the Year 2022.
Simon played a crucial role last season for Nantes, as they finished ninth in the Ligue 1 and won the Coupe de France after beating Nice in the final. He scored six goals and registered eight assists in 30 Ligue 1 games.
Meanwhile, There is no place for Napoli’s Victor Osimhen in the 30-man shortlist for this year’s award.
The 23-year-old scored 18 goals in all competitions for the Neapolitans, including 14 in the Italian Serie A, but it was not good enough to earn him a spot on the nominees’ list.
Osimhen was also Nigeria’s best player during the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, scoring four goals in the second round, but it was not enough to earn him a nomination.
The shortlist also includes Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Riyad Mahrez respectively.
Senegal who emerged champions of the 2021 Africa Cup Of Nations (AFCON) in February has the highest nominees with five players from the squad.
Egypt and Morocco has four players nominated each, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali has three players, two players from Ivory Coast, while Nigeria, Algeria, Comoros, Guinea, Gambia, and Tunisia has one players each in the shortlist.
Meanwhile, Akinkunmi Amoo is the only promising Nigerian player to be named among the 10 players nominated for the CAF Young Player of the Year award 2022.
The 20-year-old joined Danish giants FC Copenhagen from Swedish side Hammarby early this year, where he won the Svenska Cupen in 2020.
The prestigious CAF Awards ceremony will hold in Rabat, Morocco on Thursay 21st July, 2022.
Captains and Coaches of the member associations, selected journalists, CAF technical study group and CAF legends will decide the winner of the different categories.
The period under review is from September 2021 until June 2022.
There will be several categories to be presented including the Player of the Year (Men and Women), which Senegal’s Sadio Mane and Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala won the awards at the last edition held in 2019 at Hurghada in Egypt.
Other categories include; Interclub Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year, National Team of the Year, Coach of the Year, Club of the Year and Goal of the Year.
