Before the ceremony to announce the best African player .. Mani arrives in Egypt and Salah and Mahrez are absent

Nasser Sadiq

Liverpool's Senegalese star Sadio Mane arrived in Hurghada, Egypt, on a private plane, to attend the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in which he will be announced the best player in Africa for 2019, while his Egyptian rival Mohamed Salah and the Algerian Riad failed to attend Mehrez, indicating the title went to Germany.

Salah crowned the title of best African player in the past two years, surpassing Mane and Mehrez, but it seems that the leadership of the Senegalese national team in the African Nations Cup final last year won the title for him in light of his great contribution with Salah in crowning Liverpool the Champions League and European Super Cups and the Club World Cup.

The plane that Kef sent to England was supposed to carry the three-man candidate for the title of Mani, Salah and Mahrez, but Salah failed in the last moments after learning of his colleague winning the Reds, according to Egyptian press reports, citing leaks from Kef.

Algerian reports indicated that Mahrez apologized for his association with Manchester City's confrontation with arch-rivals Manchester United on Tuesday in the semi-finals of the English League Cup.

Algerian reports had leaked CAF officials with Mane winning the title of Best African Player as well.

There was anger in Egyptian sports circles for Salah's failure to attend even if Mani won the title, and political programs touched on his absence.

The Egyptian sports critic said that Salah had made a big mistake in his absence from the party, especially that Mani attended a ceremony crowning him as the best African player for the year 2018, which was held in Senegal last January, despite Mani's prior knowledge - as is customary - that Salah won the title.

Al-Husseini added that Salah does not have any links with any games such as Mahrez, as Liverpool will play Tottenham in the league next Saturday, and the private plane will return after the ceremony hours to England, noting that his lack of presence is likely to win the title of the best African player of 2019.