CAF names 10 player nominees, excludes Osimhen and Lookman

The Confederation of African Football has named 10 nominees for its 2026 Men’s Player of the Year award, leaving Nigerian forwards Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman off the shortlist. The nominees include three players each from Morocco and Senegal, and the winner is scheduled to be announced at the CAF Awards ceremony in Lagos on December 7, 2026. Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, the 2025 award winner, is nominated alongside compatriots Brahim Díaz and Ismaël Saibari. Senegal’s candidates are Sadio Mané, Ismaïla Sarr and Pape Gueye. The remaining nominees are Amad Diallo of Côte d’Ivoire, Yoane Wissa of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana’s Antoine Semenyo and South Africa’s Teboho Mokoena. Osimhen and Lookman both featured for Nigeria at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, where the team finished third. Lookman scored three goals and made four assists in six appearances, according to reports on the tournament. Osimhen scored four goals and two assists and finished as Nigeria’s leading scorer. Their omission has drawn attention in Nigeria, where Osimhen won the award in 2023 and Lookman in 2024. The exclusions are confirmed by CAF’s published shortlist, but CAF has not...