The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has made official the final ten man shortlist for the Africa Player of the year award, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
CAF via its official handle on social media platform X formerly known as Twitter picked the Nigerian duo of Ademola Lookman and William Troost-Ekong alongside 8 others, but surprisingly left out Victor Boniface.
Boniface was huge for German side Bayer Leverkusen who went all the way to lifting the league and cup in Germany without losing a single game. Their only loss came in the Europa League final defeat to Atalanta powered by a hattrick by Lookman.
However it appears the duo of Ekong and Lookman edged him on account of their involvement with the senior national team of Nigeria, who went all the way to the final of the Africa Cup of Nations before losing 1-2 to Cote d’Ivoire in the final.
Boniface missed the tournament through injury, and it appears that has proved costly with all the nominated players pivotal for their national teams in the period under review for consideration to be nominated for the award.
Below is the full list of nominees.
Amine Gouiri
Edmond Tapsoba
Simon Adingra
Chancel Mbemba
Serhou Guirassy
Achraf Hakimi
Soufiane Rahimi
Ademola Lookman
William Troost-Ekong
Ronwen Williams