The highlight of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) awards was the Senegalese star and Liverpool striker Sadio Manet's crowning of the award for the first time, having been on the mini list for the past three versions.
On the other hand, the absence of his colleague in the English team, crowned with the award in the last two years, caused the Egyptian star Mohamed Salah, as well as the absence of the Algerian star and Manchester City's England player, Riyad Mahrez, caused widespread controversy, and caused anger at the two Arab stars, because they rejected "giving back to Maneh" According to what was published in the Senegalese, Arab and international media, after he was constantly present in the past three versions, he celebrated on the podium with Mehrez (2016) and Salah (2017 and 2018).
The annual ceremony for the distribution of the African Union Awards was held in the Egyptian city of Hurghada, and was attended by the President of the Federation Ahmed Ahmed, as well as the President of the Swiss International Federation Jani Infatinio, Ito was the presenter of the ceremony, as well as many historical stars of African football, as well as international stars such as the Brazilian Cafu and Argentine Juan Veron. The historical Senegalese star, Alhaji Diouf, commented in a press statement on the absence of Salah and Mahrez, and said that “this caused widespread anger on the players, whether from their fans or from the African public in general, indicating that they did not respect the mane who stood with them when he was crowned before.”
African and Cameroonian football legend, Samuel Eto'o, who was one of the main sponsors of the ceremony, commented on the matter, angrily winking on Salah and Mahrez, and he told Sadio Mane after announcing his victory: “I love the hero’s character in you, because you are a champion in winning and losing, thank you because you were in Dakar, and in Egypt Today, ”referring to the previous ceremony in which Salah was crowned, and Manet was present in the Senegalese capital Dakar, and danced with Salah after the announcement of the latter's winning of the 2018 award. The sports website“ Senegal 7 ”said that the African Union provided all the facilities, and did all Correspondence necessary for the travel of Muhammad Salah and Riyadh Mahrez from Britain to Egypt, and Aw They reached them with full speed and ease, but they did not attend. English newspapers, such as "Mirror" and "Daily Mail" and others, commented on the matter, and considered Salah's absence controversial, but some felt that this was mainly due to the tense relationship between Salah and the Egyptian Football Association, the host of the event. The two stars did not delay congratulating Manet on the award. Mehrez said on his official account on Twitter: “Congratulations to Manet for winning the prize, he deserves it.” He added, "I apologize for not attending, but I had to start scoring goals in order to compete for the 2020 award. See you next year, God willing."
As for Salah, he published a picture of his German woman, crowned with the award, on his official account in "Instagram", saying that he deserves it and congratulating him, describing him as "brother". The two Arab stars came under heavy criticism from the tweeters on Twitter, describing their absence with a lack of respect towards Manet, who was attending despite his knowledge that he was not a winner in the previous versions, and wondering about the reason why Salah misses a party in his country.
General formation:
The Cameroonian Unana, the Moroccan Hakimi, the Senegalese Coulibaly, the Cameroonian Matib, Al-Aji Orih, the Algerian Mahrez, the Senegalese Idrisa, the Moroccan Zyash, the Egyptian Salah, the Senegalese Mane and the Gabonese Aubameyang.
Mahrez justifies his absence by participating with Manchester City in the League Cup.