Sadio Mane Crowns African Player Of The Year

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Patrice Motsepe, Asisat Oshoala, Sadio Mane, Caf AwardsBackpage Pix

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V. Osimhen

Mohamed El Shenawy

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K. Sulemana

Once the gold standard for celebrating the continent’s finest, Thursday’s gala raised eyebrows and questions

Once upon a time, the Caf Awards were the definitive gold standard to celebrate the absolute cream of Africa’s performers over the previous 12 months.

Thursday’s awards ceremony was a fitting platform for the likes of Sadio Mane, Aliou Cisse and Asisat Oshoala to be recognised for their magnificent achievements over the previous year and for the rest of the continent to celebrate their contributions to the richness of the African game.

However, some of the selections of the evening, not to mention some of the inclusions in the list of nominees and some apparent organisational muddle ahead of the evening threaten to undermine the standing and credibility of the awards ceremony and the prizes themselves.

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On one hand, it’s churlish to be complaining about the Caf Awards ceremony following the current administration’s decision to bring back the gala after there were no prizes given out in the previous two years.

Sadio Mane Caf Awards 2022Getty Images

Perhaps 2020 could have been forgiven in light of the global pandemic—indeed, there was no Ballon d’Or awarded this year—but surely the chiefs of African football could have got their act together to have organised a ceremony last year.

We should all be glad that the awards have returned after a two-year absence—a costly delay—but the actual event raised questions about the people making the decisions on the biggest awards in the continental game, and the lack of transparency in various important elements of the African football record.

Eyebrows were raised when the initial 30-man shortlist for the Caf African Footballer of the Year award was announced, with Aston Villa’s Bertrand Traore among the 30 best African players of 2021-22.

The Burkina Faso man must surely have been shocked himself to have been on the shortlist, having endured perhaps the worst season of his professional career.

Bertrand Traore - won just one match all season for club and country (played 4 mins in 3-0 Villa win vs Everton) - made just one Premier League start, made African Player of the Year shortlist.

Osimhem, Bennacer, Zaha, Aubameyang, Matip all missed out.

The attacker managed just one start for Villa all season, as injuries and apparently a lack of confidence from Steven Gerrard appeared to hint at an imminent end to his career in the Midlands.

Even his performances at the Africa Cup of Nations—where Burkina Faso reached the semi-final—were fitful, with the attacker only making one significant contribution that had a notable outcome on the Stallions’ campaign: the opening goal in the quarter-final against Gabon.

In total, and this is a remarkable stat, Traore was only on the pitch and took part in one victory for club or country during the entirety of 2021-22—when he played four minutes in Villa’s 3-0 victory over Everton in September 2021.

What on earth has the attacker done to be considered among the top 30 African players over this season?

Was he really better than Victor Osimhen, who missed out on the top 30 entirely, despite scoring 14 goals as Napoli qualified for the Champions League via a third-placed finish in Serie A? On what basis could Traore’s 21-22 be considered superior to that of Osimhen?

Bertrand Traore's place in Caf shortlist for African Player of the Year award is bizarre & bafffling.

21-22 season:

EPL starts: 1

EPL mins played: 213

Matches won (club & country) all year: 1 (he played 4 mins vs Everton)

He's in top 30 African players of 21-22? Above Osimhen? pic.twitter.com/o7HNZL3RoN

There are a few other flimsy inclusions in the shortlist, while players such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Wilfried Zaha, Ismael Bennacer and Joel Matip missed out.

It’s hard to take the list seriously, or to begin to make a case to suggest that it was compiled by people with their eye on the African game week in, week out, considering the bizarre inclusions and glaring omissions.

There won’t be too many arguments with the final three—Mane and Salah were the stand-outs—and Edouard Mendy was the Goalkeeper of the Tournament at the Nations Cup.

However, was Mendy really superior to Riyad Mahrez, Sebastien Haller or even Serie A-winning Franck Kessie during the season in question?

It would be interesting to know the steps that led to that particular decision

It’s hard to argue with the outcomes of many of the awards: Mane was a deserved POTY, even though Salah may feel hard done by after his sensational second half to 2021.

Similarly, few will debate that Wydad Casablanca, Mamelodi Sundowns, Aliou Cisse, the Senegal national team or Evelyn Badu were worthy winners, while Pape Ousmane Sakho’s overhead bicycle kick was selected as Goal of the Year by supporters.

However, the picks for the Interclub Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year are utterly bizarre.

Egypt have a long and storied history in the Africa-based Player of the Year award, with the likes of Mohamed Barakat, Mohamed Aboutrika and Ahmed Hassan all previous winners.

Al-Ahly goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy is a lovely man and—at least used to be—a fine goalkeeper, but he’s coming off the back of a tough year for club and country.

Yes, it’s a disappointing year for El-Shenawy, his performance goes from bad to worse.

Last night in the derby against Zamalek, he made a huge mistake and Al-Ahly lost 2-1.

— Zahera Adel (@za7era) July 21, 2022

Egypt fell short at the Nations Cup—where he succumbed to injury midway through the competition—and in the World Cup qualifiers, while at club level, Ahly are off the pace domestically and were defeated in the final of the Caf Champions League.

Some fans of the Red Devils even hold El Shenawy partly responsible for his recent troubles due toan increasing regularity of key errors in important matches.

El Shenawy wasn’t able to attend the Caf gala evening—he was busy making a critical error in Ahly’s costly derby defeat by SC Zamalek—and he’s a bizarre choice for Africa-based Player of the Year.

Surely a player from double-winners Wydad Casablanca—someone like Achraf Dari, Yahya Jabrane or Zouhair El Moutaraji, who netted two goals in the Caf CL final—would have been a much worthier selection.

Dari did make the final three, raising another perplexing question: how did he make the final three nominees for Africa-based shortlist, but didn’t make the 30-man longlist for the APOTY, while Jabrane, Blati Toure and Mohamed Abdelmomen were in contention for APOTY but didn’t make the final three for Interclub.

It smacks of inconsistent and muddled thinking.

Will the El Shenawy decision be explained by any of the people who put their votes behind him despite his distinct lack of success and quality performances during the year?

Was he just selected because he was the most recognisable and famous name among the nominees?

The African Young Player of the Year award was also perplexing.

Of the three final nominees, only Karim Konate—who moved to Austria after scoring goals aplenty with ASEC Mimosas—could be perceived to have had a positive season.

Hannibal Mejbri failed to break through at Manchester United—playing just 68 minutes across the whole Premier League season—while eventual winner Pape Matar Sarr was relegated with FC Metz, having struggled to hold his own the Ligue 1 dogfight.

4/6 - I refused to give a prediction for the Young Player of the Year award after being dismayed by the nominees.

Sulemana: Contributed six goals in 20 Ligue 1 outings as Rennes qualified for Champions League, impressed at Afcon, only Mbappe completed more dribbles in top flight https://t.co/KNRDs1QNCz

— Ed Dove (@EddyDove) July 21, 2022

He won the Nations Cup—playing just 13 minutes throughout the tournament—but was criticised by his own club’s fans for allegedly putting his feet up as the Grenats dropped into the second tier.

Kamaldeen Sulemana, playing in the same league, didn’t manage to make the final three-man shortlist, but did play a key role in Stade Rennais reaching the Champions League.

Only Kylian Mbappe averaged more dribbles per match than Sulemana during the Ligue 1 season, while he also had a hand in six goals throughout the course of the season and caught the eye at the Nations Cup.

The omission from Sulemana from the final three, and the election of Sarr as Young Player of the Year also raise significant questions behind the decision-making and rationale of the voters, with the young Tottenham Hotspur new boy enduring a disappointing season.