JOHANNESBURG: Another chapter in the personal rivalry between former Liverpool teammates Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah will play out in Rabat on Thursday when the African Player of the Year is named.
Mane was a key figure in the Senegal team that defeated Salah-captained Egypt in the 2021/2022 Africa Cup of Nations final and in a 2022 World Cup play-off.
Both the African title decider in Cameroon and the Qatar eliminator in Senegal were won by the Teranga Lions after penalty shootouts.
Mane scored in each shootout while the outcome of the final was decided before Salah could take his kick, and he uncharacteristically blazed wide from the spot in the play-off.
The two Senegalese successes have made Mane favorite to win a second straight Player of the Year award after 2019 — the following two editions were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Should Mane win in the Moroccan capital, he will become the first Bayern Munich star to be voted African Player of the Year.
The closest anyone from the German giants has come to first place in Africa was in 1999 and 2001 when Ghanaian Samuel Kuffour finished runner-up.
Mane moved to Bayern last month on a three-year deal after joining Liverpool in 2016 from Southampton and Anfield boss Jurgen Klopp calls him “a complete forward.”
“My only criticism of Sadio is that maybe at times he is the only one not to realize just how good he is.”
Liverpool defender Andy Robertson hailed the predatory instincts of the 30-year-old: “Whenever he is in front of the goal you do not think he will miss.”
Salah lifted the award in 2017 and 2018 and the victory of Mane the following year raised to four the number of winners from Liverpool with another Senegalese, El Hadji Diouf, topping the 2002 vote.
The Egyptian had an outstanding 2021-2022 season for the Reds, sharing the Golden Boot award with South Korean Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur.
Salah was voted the 2021-2022 Premier League Player of the Season by both the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Football Writers’ Association.
The list of contenders was trimmed from 10 to three on the eve of the ceremony with Senegal and Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy the other survivor.
Other potential individual award winners from Senegal are national coach Aliou Cisse, and Young Player of the Year contender Pape Matar Sarr.
Nigeria, the powerhouse of women’s football in Africa for decades, have one Player of the Year challenger in highly decorated Asizat Oshoala from 2022 European Champions League runners-up Barcelona.
Ruled out of the ongoing Cup of Nations in Morocco by injury, Oshoala has been voted African Player of the Year four times, most recently in 2019.
Choosing the best women’s national team will be delayed until after the Cup of Nations final between Morocco and South Africa in Rabat on Saturday.
African football legends, CAF technical committee members, coaches and captains of national teams and of some clubs and selected media pick the winners.