A few hours before the 2024 CAF Awards event kicked off in the mountainous city of Marrakech in Morocco on December 16, speculations went rife that the votes for the new African Player of the Year had leaked, giving the crown to Morocco international and PSG wing back, Achraf Hakimi.
It was reminiscent of the recent incident that preceded the Ballon d’Or awards where the votes for the eventual winner, Spain and Manchester City’s Rodri, were said to have leaked, forcing the entire Real Madrid team to shun the ceremony in Paris after they felt Brazil international, Vinicius Junior, had been robbed of the coveted title.
The fact that Hakimi, who was among the five finalists for the African best player award, was ferried from Paris to Marrakech in a private jet with the PSG hierarchy gave vent to the speculations that he would be crowned, especially as the event was being held in his home country.
Nevertheless, the stats gave the crown to the Nigeria international and Atalanta forward, Ademola Lookman, in undisputable fashion. In the outgoing year, Lookman has not only had a good outing at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in February, scoring three crucial goals that helped Nigeria to a silver medal finish, but he has also scored 11 goals and provided five assists in the Serie A and UEFA Champions League so far, in addition to several man of the match awards, the latest of which was earned in the Champions League game between Atalanta and Madrid, even though the former lost by 3-2. Hakimi’s 3 goals and 6 assists in all competitions this year gave him no chance.
Not surprisingly, Lookman, whose parents hail from Isale Osun in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, was announced as the winner of the CAF Award to a roaring applause in the expansive Marrakech Hall. Not a single person at the venue disagreed with the voters that comprised members of CAF’s technical committee, African media professionals, players and coaches.
Lookman’s feat carried a huge dose of pedigree. It meant that Nigeria has now surpassed Cote d’Ivoire in the all-time Confederation of African Football Men’s Player of the Year winners, scooping the award seven times. In addition, Nigeria is the only country to win the award in two consecutive years on three occasions with different players – Rashidi Yekini and Emmanuel Amuneke in 1993 and 1994; Nwankwo Kanu and Victor Ikpeba in 1996 and 1997; Victor Osimhen and Lookman in 2023 and 2024.
Cote d’Ivoire has won it six times with Yaya Toure winning four times and Didier Drogba winning it twice while Cameroon has won it five times with Samuel Eto’o winning it four times and fellow striker Patrick Mboma winning it once.
Senegal has also won the award thrice, with El Hadji Diouf winning it twice and Sadio Mane winning it once.
Abedi Pele of Ghana, Mustapha Hadji of Morocco, Freddie Kanoute of Mali, George Weah of Liberia, Riyad Mahrez of Algeria and Emmanuel Adebayor of Togo have all won the award once.
The 27-year-old Lookman’s career has been a progressive one since starting from Charlton Athletic and coursing through Everton, RB Leipzig, Fulham and Leicester City before proceeding to Atalanta where he literally hit the jackpot of fortune that saw him achieve the record of netting the three goals in last season’s Europa League final with which his team beat Bayer Leverkusen to win the trophy.
If anything, he had his dream come true after the Europa final. Hear him: “Football changed our lives. My parents used to work 8 hours daily, but still we were poor, struggling to survive. We were once thrown out of our rented apartment because my parents couldn’t afford the rent. I was small then but I could remember everything, so when I started playing football and earning a huge salary, I decided to buy the house we were thrown out from to keep the memories. My parents really sacrificed everything for me, sometimes they borrowed money to get me football boots, and today I can afford everything I want. I dedicated my Europa League trophy to my parents because they won it, not me.”
Amid the congratulatory messages pouring in for Lookman from the Presidency, the Nigeria Football Federation and various individuals and groups, the biggest challenge in front of him at the moment is to see that he features at the next FIFA World Cup in 2026 to be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Nigeria missed out at the 2022 finals in Qatar, although Lookman had not been part of the team that failed to win the ticket. But this challenge is a huge one for him. Nigeria is condemned to the second to the last in Group C of the World Cup qualifiers with 3 points after four games, only just above Zimbabwe which rocks the table’s bottom and behind South Africa, Rwanda, Benin Republic and Lesotho.
Getting the lone World Cup ticket in this slippery group would be a crowning glory for Lookman’s incredible career. But until the World Cup qualifiers resume in March next year with the double header games against Rwanda in Kigali and Benin Republic in Uyo, with Nigeria scooping the maximum 6 points at stake, the dream of playing in a first ever World Cup finals would be on hold for Lookman. It is fingers crossed.
Leave a Reply