Ademola Lookman was named 2024 African Participant of the 12 months on Monday on the Confederation of African Soccer Awards in Marrakech.
Zambia’s Barbra Banda was named African Ladies’s Participant of the 12 months after a profitable 12 months with Orlando Satisfaction the place she scored the title-winning aim in opposition to Kansas Metropolis to make sure her facet might declare a first-ever NWSL Championship.
Former Everton and Fulham ahead, Lookman clinched the boys’s prize forward of Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, Brighton and Ivory Coast winger Simon Adingra, Guinea’s Serhou Guirassy and South Africa goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
His award follows a formidable marketing campaign that noticed the 27-year-old rating a hat-trick as Atalanta received the Europa League ultimate in opposition to an unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen in Could.
His three objectives in the course of the African Cup of Nations additionally helped Nigeria attain the finals within the Ivory Coast the place they have been overwhelmed by the competitors’s hosts.
Lookman turns into the seventh Nigerian to take the award and succeeds final 12 months’s winner Victor Osimhen.
The Nigeria Worldwide endured a tough interval throughout his latter days within the Premier League. His try at a stoppage-time Panenka penalty in 2020 in opposition to West Ham that was simply caught by Lukasz Fabianski stays notorious as Fulham misplaced 1-0 and have been later relegated that season.
Referencing the low level throughout his successful speech, Lookman mentioned:
“Just over four years ago, I failed in front of the world. Fast forward four years and I’m the best player in Africa.
“To the younger youngsters and folks watching this, do not let your failures weigh you down that they break your wings. Flip your ache into your energy and proceed to fly.”
AFCON Winners Ivory Coast have been named Males’s Nationwide Crew of the 12 months whereas Nigeria claimed the Ladies’s award.
