CAF African Men’s Footballer of The Year Final Shortlist – Ademola Lookman Leads The List of Five Nominees Gunning For Continental Glory

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Ademola, The Obvious Pick. But here’s how others compare.

The Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) announced a final five-man shortlist for the African men’s footballer of the year on Thursday. The announcement of a five-man shortlist is a move away from the conventional three-man shortlist that has always been the case.

The CAF awards, scheduled for Monday, December 16th, 2024, are already a major headline in many sports news, with deserving players and contenders already weighing their options for winning the continent’s biggest individual honour.

On Thursday, the award organizers took to the confederation’s website to shortlist five excellent players from the initial ten nominated players. The five shortlisted players include:

1. Ademola Lookman (Nigeria, Atalanta)

2. Ronwen Williams (South Africa, Mamelodi Sundowns)

3. Achraf Hakimi (Morocco, PSG)

4. Serhou Guirassy (Guinea, Borussia Dortmund)

5. Simon Adingra ( Côte d’Ivoire, Brighton Hove Albion).

Nigerian international Ademola Lookman remains favourite to succeed his compatriot after the fantastic year he had with his club and country. The Atlanta star is the only Nigerian on the final shortlist for the award.

But he’s indeed proved why he deserves continental glory in many ways. Firstly, Ademola Lookman was Nigeria’s key creative force at the Nation’s Cup, inspiring his team’s attack to keep going even when star player Victor Oshimen was not playing at his best. His goals against Cameroon in the round of 16 and Angola in the quarter-final helped push Nigeria all the way to the final, which it lost to host country Côte d’Ivoire.

While Lookman’s impact at the African Cup of Nations can not be overemphasized, it wasn’t the main highlight of his year. Pained about losing the AFCON final, the 27-year-old took it upon himself to ensure he guns for full glory when he played another final. This time, it was with Atalanta against an undefeated Bayern Leverkusen in the Europa League Final. This time, Ademola was not only the best player on the pitch, but his Hat trick helped propel Atalanta football club to a historic Europa League victory. He not only became the first player to register a hat-trick in a UEFA Cup final since 1975, but he did this with style, writing his name in the competition’s history as the fastest player to hit a treble in just 26 minutes.

Lookman has since maintained these high standards for both club and country while establishing himself as one of Serie A’s most exciting talents this season. His 12 goals and assists in 12 matches so far this season have helped Atlanta maintain its spot at the top of the league with fierce competition from Conte’s Napoli and Inzaghi’s Inter Milan.

Truly, there’s no shortage of talent in CAF’s final shortlist, but Ademola Lookman has not stopped showing why he’s the most qualified player to clinch African football’s top individual Men’s prize next week