Sports

CAF Award: Osimhen, Salah, Hakimi make fiinal three shortlist

Published

5 months ago

December 7, 2023

In-form Nigeria and Napoli striker, Victor Osimhen, has made the final three-man list for the 2023 CAF Men’s Player of the Year Award which will hold on December 11 in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Osimhen, who had a sterling last season where he led Napoli to its first Italian league title in 33 years with 26 goals to end as the first African player to win the top scorer award in the Serie A, will battle for the crown with Egyptian captain and Liverpool star, Mohamed Salah, and Moroccan defender, Achraf Hakimi, who plays for PSG in the French Ligue One.

Many football pundits in the continent have so far tipped the Lagos-born Osimhen to pick the diadem ahead of Salah and Hakimi.

The latest to give the gong to the former Lille player was mercurial ex-Super Eagles captain, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, who believes Osimhen has done enough to be named CAF Player of the Year for 2023 after his exploits with his Italian club and the Eagles.

In an interview on Wednesday, Okocha said the 24-year-old Osimhen’s consistency at the highest level had won him the prestigious gong already.

“Osimhen deserves it because for me, he was the most consistent player of last season,” the former PSG midfield star said in the interview.

If Osimhen goes ahead to win the award, he will be the second Nigerian player to achieve the feat after Nwankwo Kanu who won the CAF Player of the Year Award in 1999.

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Sports

Al Ahly, Esperance to clash in CAF Champions League final

Published

19 hours ago

April 27, 2024

Akanimoh Etim

Two of Africa’s club giants, Egypt’s Al Ahly and Esperance of Tunisia, will do battle next month over two legs for the right to be crowned champions of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League.

Title-holders Al Ahly and their long-standing rivals Esperance both booked their places in the final with dramatic semi-final victories over DR Congo”s TP Mazembe and Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa respectively on Friday night.

While Al Ahly, winners of five of the last seven editions of the continent’s top draw tournament, with a record 11 in total, overcame TP Mazembe with a 3-0 aggregate victory in the semi-final second leg after a goalless first leg last Saturday, Esperance surprised Sundowns with a 1-0 victory in Pretoria to wrap up a 2-0 aggregate win.

The two-legged final will mark the third encounter between Ahly and Esperance in the Champions League final, with the Egyptians winning in 2012 and the Tunisians triumphing in 2018.

In 2023, the two clubs clashed in the semi-finals with Ahly emerging victorious home and away, securing a 4-0 aggregate triumph.

Esperance who are aiming for a fifth Champions League title, will host the first leg in Rades on May 18, with the return fixture scheduled in Cairo seven days later.

Sports

Former Zambian captain Rainford Kalaba discharged from hospital after near-fatal accident

Published

2 days ago

April 26, 2024

Akanimoh Etim

Former Zambian national team captain, Rainford Kalaba, has been discharged from hospital weeks after he was involved in a near-fatal accident where he sustained serious injuries.

The accident which involved a head-on collision between a Mercedes-Benz car in which Kalaba was in, and a truck, had initially sparked fears for his life and has since been in the Intensive Care Unit of the Zambian University Teaching Hospital (UTH).

The good news on the footballer’s progress was released by the UTH Public Relations Officer, Nzeba Chanda, who informed that the Chipolopolo legend has been discharged after showing positive signs of recovery.

“Mr. Rainford Kalaba has been discharged from the UTH-Adult where he was admitted after being involved in a road traffic accident two weeks ago,” Chanda said, adding that Kalaba will continue his recovery at his family home.

According to local media reports, the 37-year-old was a passenger in a Mercedes Benz when it collided with an oncoming truck in the south-eastern Zambian town of Kafue a week and five days ago.

In his active playing days, Kalaba spent the majority of his club career at TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo, winning the CAF Champions League with the club in 2015 and the CAF Confederation Cup in 2016.

He also had a spell with clubsides in Portugal including FC Braga, and was a major part of the Zambian squad that won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2012 under Frenchman, Herve Renard.