Nigeria Super Eagles and SSC Napoli striker Victor Osimhen has won the Best African International Player award at the 2023 Ghana Football Awards in the early hours of Monday for the very first time in his career.
Osimhen defeated fellow African Stars who also had good seasons in their clubs last season, including the likes of Egyptian Mohammed Salah with Liverpool, Moroccan Yassine Bounou, who won the Europa League with Sevilla and treble-winning Riyad Mahrez with Manchester City.
Osimhen was pre-award favourite after guiding Napoli to the Scudetto for the first time in 33 years, and also playing a huge part in the Super Eagles qualification for the 2024 African Cup of Nations in Cote D’Ivoire with a game to spare. And, so, his emergence as the Best African International Player in the Ghana Awards was expected.
The Best African International Award marks the third individual award the Napoli striker has won in the last few months. Osimhen had earlier won the 2022-2023 Serie A Striker of the Season award, as well as the Capocannoniere for the League’s Highest Goalscorer with his 26 goals last season.
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Osimhen’s great season with Napoli and Nigeria puts him in the driving seat to land the CAF African Player of the Year Award. Success at the CAF Awards would mark the first time a Nigerian reigns supreme since Kanu Nwankwo did so in 1999. For Nigerians, the wait is only a matter of time
There have been five editions of the Ghana Football Awards. These are the past winners of the Best African International Player Award:
Victor Osimhen – 2023 (Nigeria)
Sadio Mane – 2022 (Senegal)
Edouard Mendy – 2021 (Senegal)
No awards in 2020 – Covid-19
Thomas Partey – 2019 (Ghana)
(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
