Senegalese stars Sadio Mane and Egyptian Mohamed Salah lead the list of nominees for the award for the best player in Africa, announced by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Monday.
Mane won the last award for the best player in 2019, before it was canceled in the previous two years, and he will be a strong candidate this time after leading Senegal to win the African Nations Cup and qualify for the World Cup in Qatar.
Salah climbed with Egypt to the final of the Nations Cup, but lost on penalties to Senegal, which was repeated in the deciding confrontation to qualify for the World Cup, but the captain of the "Pharaohs" team shared the top scorer in the English Premier League this season with South Korea's Hyun-Min Son, the top scorer for Tottenham.
Mane and Salah appeared distinctively with Liverpool throughout the season, before the Senegalese player moved to Bayern Munich.
10x #CAFAwards2022 Player of the Year (Men) nominees!
🏆
Which of them will be shortlisted?
✨ pic.twitter.com/qFi5Qb07Gq
— CAF (@CAF_Online) July 11, 2022
The list of ten candidates also included the Guinean Naby Keita, the Liverpool midfielder, and the Algerian Riyad Mahrez, who won the English Premier League title with Manchester City.
Salah won the best player award in 2017 and 2018, and Mahrez won it in 2016.
The winner will be determined based on the votes of the technical committee in the "CAF" and a group of journalists, as well as coaches and leaders of the African teams, and the ceremony will be held in the Moroccan city of Rabat on the 21st of this month.