Sadio Mane of Senegal has been named African player of the year for the second time.
Sadio Mane has been crowned CAF Men’s Player of the Year for the second time, beating former teammate Mohamed Salah to the 2022 award.
The pair were named in the final three-man shortlist for the award after both enjoying a prolific and triumphant year.
The Bayern Munich forward won the Confederation of African Football award at a ceremony in the Moroccan capital on Thursday night.
Nigerian Asisat Oshoala won the Women’s Player of the Year a record fifth time, overtaking compatriot Perpetua Nkwocha.
The 30-year-old Mane scored the penalty against Egypt that sealed Senegal’s first African Cup of Nations title earlier this year and helped his country qualify for the World Cup in Qatar.
Mane left Liverpool last month to join the German champions.
The pair Salah and Sadio proved crucial for Liverpool in a remarkable campaign, combining 54 goals as Jurgen Klopp‘s side lifted two trophies.
On the international stage, they twice faced off in major finals, with Mane emerging as the victor on both occasions with Senegal.
Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations and booked their place in the 2022 World Cup, with Salah’s Egypt twice on the wrong end of the result after gruelling matches that went the distance.
Salah and Mane were joined on the shortlist by Chelsea and Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, who enjoyed his own success with Senegal.
In the end, Mane was crowned African Men’s Player of the Year for 2022 after proving crucial to Senegal’s recent triumphs, in addition to his impressive 23-goal tally for Liverpool.
Mane, now of Bayern Munich, is a deserving award, which he has won for the second time in his career after beating Salah back in 2019.
Liverpool’s No. 11 will have plenty of fire in his belly, though, to go one better next year and with his future at Anfield now settled, another scintillating season feels within reach.
In February, Mane converted the decisive fifth penalty to give Senegal a 4-2 shootout victory over Egypt and a first Africa Cup of Nations title after the final ended 0-0 in Yaounde.
A month later, Mane was again the shootout match-winner against Egypt, this time in a World Cup play-off near Dakar after a 1-1 aggregate stalemate.
Salah did not get a chance to take a penalty in the Cup of Nations decider while he blazed the first Egyptian kick wide in the play-off that secured a World Cup place in Qatar this November for Senegal.
Born in a village nearly 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Dakar, Mane attracted Metz’s attention, having played for local second-tier club Generation Foot.
After enhancing his reputation at Salzburg, Mane joined Southampton, where his feats included scoring a record-breaking 176-second Premier League hat-trick against Aston Villa.
In mid-2016, the Senegalese signed for Liverpool and formed a fearsome front three with Salah and Brazilian Roberto Firmino.
As Mane moved to Bayern, the Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, said: “My only criticism of Sadio is that maybe at times he is the only one not to realise just how good he is.”