Serhou Guirassy and Edmond Tapsoba on shortlist for 2024 CAF African Men’s Player of the Year
Borussia Dortmund’s Serhou Guirassy and Edmond Tapsoba of Bayer Leverkusen have been named on the 10-man final shortlist for the 2024 CAF African Player of the Year award.
Guirassy will be among the hot favourites after his stellar year in front of goal. The 28-year-old started 2024 in excellent form for VfB Stuttgart, netting 12 times in 15 competitive club appearances since the turn of the year. The striker finished the 2023/24 Bundesliga campaign with 28 goals from as many games to finish second behind Harry Kane, both in the standings for the German top flight and the race for the European Golden Shoe.
Those totals would no doubt have been even higher if not for missing four Bundesliga fixtures while competing at the Africa Cup of Nations, where Guinea reached the quarter-finals. Now at Dortmund, Guirassy has continued his rich vein of form with seven goals from his first eight games across the Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League, while he also hit five in two Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers during the October international break.
Watch: All Guirassy's Bundesliga goals in 2023/24
Burkinabe centre-back Tapsoba helped Leverkusen make history by becoming the Bundesliga’s first Invincibles and also claim the domestic double by lifting the DFB Cup. He then enjoyed Supercup glory to kick off the 2024/25 campaign in August. The 25-year-old has played 36 club games in 2024 and only been beaten twice. He played every minute for Burkina Faso at the Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast as the Stallions went out in the round of 16.
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The CAF Awards 2024 cover the period between January 2024 and October 2024, with the ceremony set to take place on 16 December in Marrakech, Morocco.
African football’s governing body named the following 10 players on the final shortlist for the men’s award:
Amine Gouiri (Algeria / Rennes), Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso / Bayer Leverkusen), Simon Adingra (Ivory Coast / Brighton & Hove Albion), Chancel Mbemba (DR Congo / Marseille), Serhou Guirassy (Guinea / Borussia Dortmund), Achraf Hakimi (Morocco / Paris Saint-Germain), Soufiane Rahimi (Morocco / Al Ain), Ademola Lookman (Nigeria / Atalanta), William Troost-Ekong (Nigeria / Al Kholood), Ronwen Williams (South Africa / Mamelodi Sundowns)
They are in the running to succeed Nigeria and ex-Wolfsburg striker Victor Osimhen as the best player from Africa.
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