The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced the five finalists for the 2024 African Player of the Year award, featuring Nigeria’s Ademola Lookman (27) and Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi (26) among the distinguished nominees.
Completing the shortlist are Simon Adingra (Ivory Coast/Brighton & Hove Albion), Serhou Guirassy (Guinea/Borussia Dortmund), and Ronwen Williams (South Africa/Mamelodi Sundowns).
CAF had previously published a ten-player shortlist in October, which has now been narrowed down to five nominees. Noteworthy exclusions from this list include Africa Cup of Nations MVP William Troost-Ekong, Burkina Faso’s Edmond Tapsoba, who played a crucial role in Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten streak last season, and Chancel Mbemba from DR Congo.
The CAF Awards for 2024 are set to be held in Marrakech, Morocco, on December 16th, where a new African Player of the Year will be announced, following the omission of Victor Osimhen, the Nigerian and Galatasaray forward, from the final list of nominees.
CAF has indicated that the awards will honor performances from January 2024 through October 2024.
Williams has received his second nomination for the Goalkeeper of the Year award, seeking to outshine competitors such as Manchester United’s Andre Onana from Cameroon, Nigeria’s Stanley Nwabali, Ivory Coast’s Yahia Fofana, and Egypt’s Mostafa Shobeir.
In addition, South Africa’s Williams is also in the running for a third accolade, having been nominated for CAF’s Interclub Player of the Year. He is competing against Issoufou Dayo (Burkina Faso/RS Berkane), Ahmed Sayed ‘Zizo’ (Egypt/Zamalek), Hussein El Shahat (Egypt/Al Ahly), and Mostafa Shobeir (Egypt/Al Ahly) on the shortlist.
The nominees for the Men’s National Team of the Year include the reigning African champions, Ivory Coast, alongside Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, and DR Congo.
The shortlist for Coach of the Year features Pedro Goncalves (Angola), Emerse Fae (Ivory Coast), Sebastien Desabre (DR Congo), Marcel Koller (Al Ahly), and Hugo Broos (South Africa).
For the Men’s Club of the Year, the contenders are Al Ahly (Egypt), Zamalek (Egypt), RS Berkane (Morocco), Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa), and Esperance Sportive de Tunis (Tunisia).
Nominations in full:
Player of the Year
Simon Adingra (Ivory Coast/Brighton & Hove Albion)
Serhou Guirassy (Guinea/Borussia Dortmund)
Achraf Hakimi (Morocco/Paris Saint-Germain)
Ademola Lookman (Nigeria/ Atalanta)
Ronwen Williams (South Africa/Mamelodi Sundowns)
Goalkeeper of the Year
Andre Onana (Cameroon/Manchester United)
Yahia Fofana (Ivory Coast/Angers SCO)
Mostafa Shobeir (Egypt/Al Ahly)
Stanley Nwabali (Nigeria/Chippa United)
Ronwen Williams (South Africa/Mamelodi Sundowns)
Interclub Player of the Year
Issoufou Dayo (Burkina Faso/RS Berkane)
Ahmed Sayed ‘Zizo’ (Egypt/Zamalek)
Hussein El Shahat (Egypt/Al Ahly)
Mostafa Shobeir (Egypt/Al Ahly)
Ronwen Williams (South Africa/Mamelodi Sundowns)
Coach of the Year
Pedro Goncalves (Angola)
Emerse Fae (Ivory Coast)
Sebastien Desabre (DR Congo)
Marcel Koller (Al Ahly)
Hugo Broos (South Africa)
Young Player of the Year
Karim Konate (Ivory Coast/Salzburg)
Oumar Diakite (Ivory Coast/Reims)
Yankuba Minteh (Gambia/Brighton & Hove Albion)
Eliesse Ben Seghir (Morocco/AS Monaco)
Lamine Camara (Senegal/AS Monaco)
Club of the Year
Al Ahly (Egypt)
Zamalek (Egypt)
RS Berkane (Morocco)
Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa)
Esperance Sportive de Tunis (Tunisia)
National Team of the Year
Ivory Coast
DR Congo
Nigeria
South Africa
Sudan
