RABAT
\nMorocco captain Achraf Hakimi won the African men\u2019s player of the year award on Wednesday, capping a season in which he lifted the UEFA Champions League with his club Paris Saint-Germain.
\nThe 27-year-old also won a fourth Ligue 1 title last season and claimed the French Cup and UEFA Super Cup, however PSG came up short in the final of the Club World Cup as Hakimi was forced to settle for a runners-up medal in New York.
\nThe right-back beat out two past winners in Liverpool\u2019s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah and Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen to claim the prize for the first time in his career.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s really an honour for me to be here today and I\u2019m proud to win such a prestigious trophy,\u201d Hakimi said, before thanking his family, teammates and Morocco coach Walid Regragui.
\n\u201cThis trophy, it\u2019s not just for me, it\u2019s for all the strong men and women that have dreams in Africa and those that dream of becoming footballers.\u201d
\nHakimi is currently nursing a severely sprained ankle but, if fit, will lead hosts Morocco in the Africa Cup of Nations from December 21 as they seek to win the competition for the first time since 1976.
\nMorocco\u2019s Ghizlane Chebbak claimed the prize for the best women\u2019s player on the continent, beating out fellow countrywoman Sanaa Mssoudy and Nigerian Rasheedat Ajibade.
\nThe Al Hilal attacker was the leading scorer in the Africa Women\u2019s Cup of Nations this year, although her side went down to Nigeria in the decider.
\nIt was a bumper day for the ceremony\u2019s host country Morocco as Yassine Bounou scooped up the best men\u2019s goalkeeper award and the Moroccan under-20 World Cup-winning side was voted best men\u2019s national team.
\nWatford 20-year-old Othmane Maamma of Morocco claimed best young men\u2019s player, while compatriot Doha El Madani retained the title of best young women\u2019s player.
\nCape Verde boss Bubista was awarded men\u2019s coach of the year after leading the nation with a population of 525,000 to a place at the 2026 World Cup.
\nNigerian shotstopper Chiamaka Nnadozie won her third consecutive women\u2019s goalkeeper of the year award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RABAT Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi won the African men\u2019s player of the year award on Wednesday, capping a season in which he lifted the UEFA Champions League with his club Paris Saint-Germain. The 27-year-old also won a fourth Ligue 1 title last season and claimed the French Cup and UEFA Super Cup, however PSG came …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":89918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89948,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89936\/revisions\/89948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}