Ademola Lookman was named 2024 African Participant of the Yr on Monday on the Confederation of African Soccer Awards in Marrakech.
Zambia’s Barbra Banda was named African Ladies’s Participant of the Yr after a profitable yr with Orlando Satisfaction the place she scored the title-winning objective towards Kansas Metropolis to make sure her facet may 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 powerful marketing campaign that noticed the 27-year-old rating a hat-trick as Atalanta received the Europa League remaining towards an unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen in Might.
His three targets through the African Cup of Nations additionally helped Nigeria attain the finals within the Ivory Coast the place they had been overwhelmed by the competitors’s hosts.
Lookman turns into the seventh Nigerian to take the award and succeeds final yr’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 towards West Ham that was simply caught by Lukasz Fabianski stays notorious as Fulham misplaced 1-0 and had 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 kids 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 had been named Males’s Nationwide Group of the Yr whereas Nigeria claimed the Ladies’s award.
