Salah thrilled after being named as African Footballer of the Year
LIVERPOOL forward Mohamed Salah has won the BBC African Footballer of the Year award.
Salah finished top from a five-man shortlist after a fans’ vote, beating Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Naby Keita, Sadio Mane and Victor Moses.
The Egypt international, who has racked up a double-figure goal tally since moving to the Premier League from Roma, was presented with his award by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp at the club’s Melwood training ground.
“It’s always a special feeling when you win something,” said Salah. “You feel like you had a great year, so I am very happy.”
And Klopp added: “It’s well deserved. The good thing is that he is still young,
Offensively, Porto’s success will depend on the talents of Vincent Aboubakar, a physically-imposing striker who has an excellent record in front of goal this season, boasting 20 goals in 22 appearance so far. Yacine Brahimi is Conceicao’s creator-in-chief but left-back Alex Telles also contributes heavily, particularly from set-pieces.
To progress, Liverpool will have to produce the kind of pockmarked but competent performances shown in August’s play-off against Hoffenheim, al- there is a lot of space for improvement, a lot of potential still that we can work on, but that’s how it should be.”
Previous winners of the award include Didier Drogba, George Weah and Yaya Toure.
beit against a better opponent. Even though Porto know how to defend deep, Klopp’s greatest asset remains the attacking quartet of Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
If those four players produce a display similar to the one seen against Hoffenheim at home, during the first half-hour in Seville and last Wednesday night against Spartak Moscow to seal qualification, then Liverpool will have an excellent chance of reaching the last eight.