Salah favourite to complete hat-trick at awards event
LIVERPOOL star Mohamed Salah hopes to add the African Player of the Year award in Ghana to his rapidly expanding collection of individual honours tonight. The Egyptian, scorer of 23 goals in all competitions midway through his first English Premier League season at Anfield, has already been voted BBC African Footballer of the Year and Arab Player of the Year. Salah, Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane, of Senegal, and Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, of Borussia Dortmund, are the contenders for the highest African individual football honour. The scoring feats of Salah have installed him as the favourite to succeed Algerian Riyad Mahrez, of Leicester City, as the No 1 African footballer. “I want to be the best Egyptian footballer ever,” Salah said after receiving the BBC award last month. “When I came to Liverpool, I hoped to show everyone my abilities. “I scored a lot of goals with Roma and am very happy of being successful at Liverpool.” Salah and Mane will leave Accra soon after the awards ceremony as Liverpool have an FA Cup thirdround derby date with Everton tomorrow night. However, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp did not hesitate to release his African duo for the Accra ceremony, which will include six other awards. “It is a sign of respect,” the German coach said. “We sleep in a hotel and they sleep in a plane. That is the only difference.” Salah is a doubt for the Merseyside showdown, though, having missed the league win at Burnley on Monday night with a groin strain. Should Salah be named player of the year, he will be only the second Egyptian to hoist the symbol of individual brilliance, after 1983 winner Mahmoud al Khatib. It would be the first time since 1986 that north Africans have won successive editions of the annual poll, which this year involved coaches, journalists, officials and the public. Morocco midfielder Mohamed Timoumi was the 1985 winner, followed by compatriot Badou Zaki, one of two goalkeepers to be voted the best African footballer.
Footballers from the west of the continent have dominated recently – with Samuel Eto’o, of Cameroon, and Yaya Toure, of the Ivory Coast, each winning four times.
While Salah has made the top three for the first time, prolific Bundesliga scorer Aubameyang finished first once and second twice in the past three award ceremonies. Mane came third last season. However, Mane’s valuable input for Liverpool has been overshadowed by Salah this season, second in the Premier League scorers’ charts behind England star Harry Kane, of Tottenham Hotspur. –