The CAF Awards 2023 ceremony took place on Monday December 11 in Marrakech, Morocco. The various African soccer awards were handed out. The most eagerly-awaited award, for African Player of the Year, went to Victor Osmhen. The Nigerian reaped the laurels for his magnificent 2022-2023 season with Napoli.In the women's category, Asisat Oshoala was named African Player of the Year.In addition, Lamine Camara was named best young player, while Yassine Bounou and Walid Regragui won awards in the goalkeeper and coach categories respectively. Here's a look back at all the awards at the CAF Awards 2023.
The year 2023 will live forever in Victor Osimhen's memory. The striker was voted African Player of the Year on Monday December 11 at the CAF Awards ceremony. The award was well deserved, to say the least, for the man who won the Serie A title, Napoli's first since 1990 under Diego Maradona. The player also finished as Calcio's top scorer with 26 goals. There was also the added bonus of a Champions League quarter-final and the title of Italy's best player awarded by the players. At the age of 24, the former Lille man has had a very busy year. He is ahead of Achraf Hakimi (Morocco, PSG) and Mohamed Salah (Egypt, Liverpool).
Victor Osimhen is also the first Nigerian to win the award since Nwankwo Kanu in 1999. It is also the 6th time a Super Eagle has won the trophy, after Rashidi Yekini (1993), Emmanuel Amunike (1994), Nwankwo Kanu (1996 and 1999) and Victor Ikpeba (1997).
#CAFAwards 🌍 : Fer de lance du Napoli, Victor Osimhen 🇳🇬 inscrit son nom au panthéon des légendes du football africain après une saison d'anthologie ! Écoutez son discours 🙌 pic.twitter.com/LKXDCcVonH
— CANAL+ SPORT Afrique (@cplussportafr) December 11, 2023
Walid Regragui, Yassine Bounou, Lamine Camara...
However, Victor Osimhen was not the only winner at this year's CAF Awards ceremony.Walid Regragui was voted best coach of the year. Regragui led Morocco to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup. The Atlas Lions are logically the best selection of the year 2023. Another Moroccan to walk away with a trophy is Yassine Bounou.The Seville goalkeeper was voted best African goalkeeper of 2023 with his semi-final appearance at the World Cup and Europa League triumph.
The trophy for Best Young African Player went to Lamine Camara. The 19-year-old Senegalese prodigy is coming off an exceptional year, having won the CHAN and the AFCON U20, two competitions in which he was crowned best player. He also won his first cap and scored his first goal for Senegal's senior team.He is also off to a good start with Metz in Ligue 1. He is ahead of his compatriot Amara Diouf and Morocco's Abdessamad Ezzalzouli. Al Ahly was voted African Club of the Year after winning the CAF Champions League again.
Nigeria and South Africa take almost all the honours in the women's category
As in the case of Victor Osimhen, the African female player of the year also comes from Nigeria in the person of Asisat Oshoala. The striker once again won the Champions League with Barça. This is the 6th time she has won the title of Best Female Player of the Year, after 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022.A reign without sharing.
Chiamaka Nnadozie was also named Ladies' Goalkeeper of the Year 2023. On the national team front, Nigeria was named the best team of 2023. The Flying Eagles reached the Round of 16 at the 2023 World Cup. The Nigerians are ahead of South Africa, the reigning African champions.However, the South Africans can take comfort in the fact that coach Desiree Ellis was voted best coach of the year. Mamelodi Sundowns won the Women's Club of the Year award after taking the Women's Champions League title. Fatima Tagnaout won the trophy for best female interclub player.
