On Monday, Ademola Lookman will lead Nigeria’s quest for honours on the CAF Awards within the Moroccan Metropolis of Marrakech.
The Atalanta ahead is in pole place to be topped the CAF Participant of the 12 months for 2024 following a shocking marketing campaign that noticed him win the Europa League the place he bagged a historic hat-trick within the last.
Final 12 months, Lookman’s compatriots Victor Osimhen and Asisat Oshoala scooped the lads’s and ladies’s CAF prizes respectively.
In saying the ultimate shortlist for the lads’s prize for this 12 months, the Confederation of African Soccer (CAF) stated it was an in depth name, thus their lack of ability to prune the listing to 3. Which means Lookman will battle South Africa’s Ronwen Williams; Cote d’Ivoire’s Simon Adingra; Guinea’s Serhou Guirassy and Achraf Hakimi of Morocco for Africa’s high particular person soccer prize.
Nevertheless, in Morroco on Monday, the Atalanta man is favoured to take the crown from his compatriot Osimhen. The statistics inform all of it! Within the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) performed earlier within the 12 months, Lookman was an inspirational determine for Nigeria, notching three targets and two assists in seven video games because the Tremendous Eagles flew to a second-place end. He struck a brace within the final 16 match in opposition to Cameroon earlier than bagging the winner within the quarter-final vs Angola.
READ ALSO: Tremendous Eagles’ AFCON Qualification: A Combine Of Triumph And Turmoil
His performances in Cote d’Ivoire earned him a spot within the Staff of the Event, about two years after he switched allegiance to Nigeria from England. Lookman adopted up the AFCON outing with a historic hat-trick as Atalanta defeated Bayer Leverkusen within the Europa League last, ending the German facet’s unbeaten season run and giving his crew their second main crown since 1963.
Thus far this season, the winger has scored 11 targets and 5 assists in 18 video games throughout all competitions for his Italian facet. Lookman has additionally been spectacular for the Tremendous Eagles after the AFCON. He was instrumental within the crew’s AFCON 2025 qualification, scoring two targets within the course of. Two of his targets have been dominated off in controversial circumstances throughout that qualification sequence.
The 27-year-old was the one African within the Ballon d’Or shortlist this 12 months and completed in a formidable 14th place.
Lookman gained’t be the one Nigerian going for honours in Morocco. Within the ladies’s class, the soft-spoken Chiamaka Nnadozie will hope to take the Participant of the 12 months award – gained six instances by Oshoala – again residence. However she faces stiff competitors within the mildew of Zambia’s Barbra Banda and Moroccan Sanâa Mssoudy.
Nnadozie, a key determine for French facet Paris FC, helped Nigeria seal an Olympics ticket after a 16-year absence. The Tremendous Falcon is equally a favorite to retain the Goalkeeper of the 12 months gong. She is up in opposition to Andile Dlamini (South Africa) and Khadija Er-Rmichi of Morocco for that.
Falconet’s Chiamaka Okwuchukwu completes Nigeria’s trio of contenders for particular person prizes within the CAF Awards for 2024. She made the ultimate shortlist for the Younger Participant of the 12 months (ladies) after serving to Nigeria attain the final eight of this 12 months’s U-20 World Cup in Colombia. Okwuchukwu additionally featured within the Nigerian squad that obtained to the ultimate of the Africa Video games.
For the crew prizes, the Tremendous Eagles and Falcons have been nominated for the lads’s and ladies’s groups of the 12 months in that order. For the previous, South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire are contenders whereas the latter has Morocco, South Africa, Zambia, and the Cameroon U-20 facet.
Edo Queens who obtained to the semi-final of the CAF Girls’s Champions League of their debut additionally earned a spot within the Girls’s Membership of the 12 months class.
Because the world eagerly awaits the 2024 CAF Awards ceremony, all eyes will likely be on Lookman to guide his residence nation to glory within the imperial Moroccan metropolis of Marrakech.
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