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Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Two guesses as to who else is on the list.
After last season, the news that Mohamed Salah has been named to the 2022 African Men’s Player of the Year shortlist should come as no surprise. Neither should be the other two named to the list - noneother than former (sob) Liverpool player Sadio Mane and Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
The trophy will be handed out on Thursday, July 21. Salah previously won the award in 2017 and 2018, and Mane won the award in 2019. The Egyptian, of course, helped his national team to the final of the African Cup of Nations, only to be defeated by Mane’s Senegal. Salah also racked up 51 appearances for Liverpool this past season (an insane number), and scored 31 goals with 16 assists.
The award would join Salah’s already packed cabinet with personal accolades, having already won the Professional Footballers’ Association Men’s Players’ Player of the Year and Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year, in addition to Premier League’s Golden Boot and Playmaker of the Season.
Sadio Mane is the favourite to win this year, considering his contribution in securing the African Cup of Nations win for Senegal and his own sizeable contributions to Liverpool’s record breaking season, before departing to Bayern Munich. It would be nice to see the smiley Senegalese attacker be finally recognized for his own efforts, after all.
(Of course, Salah said earlier this summer that he’d give them all up to have won the Champions League, so just add this one to the pile in the chance he wins).
