Napoli striker Victor Osimhen has been named as the CAF Men’s Player of the Year for 2023, largely thanks to his role in the Partenopei’s Serie A title win in the 2022-23 season.
Osimhen fought off competition from the likes of Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, Paris Saint-Germain’s Achraf Hakimi and Al-Nassr’s Sadio Mane to the title on Monday night.
Osimhen becomes the first Nigerian player to win the award since Arsenal’s Nwankwo Kanu in 1999, and is also the first active Serie A player to be crowned Africa’s player of the year since Samuel Eto’o when he was at Inter in 2010.
The Nigerian has enjoyed a calendar year full of personal and collective accolades, the most important of which was the Serie A title in 2022-23.
During the title-winning campaign, Osimhen scored a league-leading 26 goals from 32 Serie A appearances, collecting the Capocannoniere award in the process, the first African player to do so.
On top of that tally, he also registered five goals in six matches on his way to the Champions League quarter-finals.
Osimhen was in Morocco himself to collect the award on Monday evening, having been granted the day off from training with Napoli to attend the ceremony.
But does not play in Africa but gets the Award. So Ronaldo and others do not get best European citizen player of the year award the South Americans do. Makes sense.