If Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen does not win the 2023 CAF African Player of the Year award in December, it will be a surprise.
According to Naija News, Victor Osimhen was one of 30 players nominated for the men’s CAF player of the year today, November 1, less than two days after finishing as the world’s eighth best player at the 2023 Ballon d’Or.
Remember that Osimhen, 24, was nominated for the Ballon d’Or after scoring 26 goals and providing 5 assists to help Napoli win the Scudetto for the first time in 33 years.
Osimhen also concluded the Italian Serie A season as the league’s top scorer and was named Italy’s finest striker of the season.
Aside from his league performance, Osimhen excelled for Napoli in the Champions League, helping the team reach the quarter-final stage of the UCL for the first time in club history with five goals in six games.
Victor Osimhen was also outstanding for the Super Eagles before and during the period under consideration, November 2022 and September 2023. Even though he was unable to assist Nigeria qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, he was able to easily help the Super Eagles qualify for the 2023 AFCON.
Osimhen was so good throughout the qualification series that he scored ten goals and finished as the campaign’s leading scorer.
No player nominated for the award performed as well as Victor Osimhen during the year under consideration, including Achraf Hakimi of PSG and Morocco, and Hakim Ziyech of Morocco and Galatasaray, who guided their country to a fourth-place finish at the 2022 World Cup.
The fact that France Football, the organizers of football’s most prestigious award, the Ballon d’Or, named Osimhen the 8th best player in the world, a position none of the CAF award nominees come close to, confirms that nothing should stand in the way of the Nigerian star winning the 2023 CAF Player of the Year award on December 11 in Marrakech, Morocco.
