The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has released the final shortlists of the 2016 CAF Player of the Year awards.
There was no surprise on the Africa Player of the Year list as Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who features for Borussia Dortmund, Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez and Islam Slimani who both feature for Leicester in the English Premier League as Senegal’s Sadio Mane from Liverpool made the list.
On the continent based players, Uganda Cranes Denis Onyango makes the list alongside Khama Billiat of Zimbabwe and the South African duo of Keegan Dolly, Hlompho Kekana plus Zambia skipper Rainford Kalaba who features for TP Mazembe.
Kalaba, who also skippers the DR Congo side finished as top scorer in the CAF Confederations Cup with eight goals helping the side to win the competition.
The top five was decided by votes from the members of the CAF Media Committee, CAF Technical & Development Committee and half of the 20-member Panel of Experts (10 persons).
For the final phase, votes from the Head Coaches/Technical Directors of the 54 National Associations affiliated to CAF plus Associate Members, Reunion Island and Zanzibar, together with the other half of the 20-member Panel of Experts (10 persons) will be counted towards the determination of the eventual winners.
The 2016 Glo-CAF Awards Gala sponsored by telecommunication giants, Globacom, will be held on Thursday, 5 January 2017 in Abuja, Nigeria.
For the African Player of the Year, they are;
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon & Borussia Dortmund)
- Riyad Mahrez (Algeria & Leicester City)
- Sadio Mane (Senegal & Liverpool)
- Mohamed Salah (Egypt & Roma)
- Islam Slimani (Algeria & Leicester City)
For the African Player of the Year (Based in Africa), the top five are;
- Khama Billiat (Mamelodi Sundowns & Zimbabwe)
- Keegan Dolly (Mamelodi Sundowns & South Africa)
- RainfordKalaba (TP Mazembe & Zambia)
- HlomphoKekana (MamelodiSundowns & South Africa)
- Denis Onyango (Mamelodi Sundowns & Uganda)
