Ademola Lookman wins CAF Men’s Player of the Year Award

Super Eagles attacker Ademola Lookman has won the CAF Men’s Player of the Year Award for 2024.

“When the stars align, they spell Ademola Lookman. Ladies and gentlemen, your Men’s Player of the Year,” CAF wrote on its official X account on Monday night.

Lookman has won the award, replacing fellow Nigerian compatriot, Victor Osimhen who won it last year.

The Atalanta attacker emerged as the winner after a spectacular year with both club and country.

Lookman will look back and forever continue to bless the day he made the decision to switch allegiance to Nigeria, having earlier played for England during his youth career with whom he won the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2017.

The forward scored two goals in four matches during the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualification series to help the Super Eagles qualify for the tournament in grand style.

Lookman as expected made Super Eagles head coach, Jose Peseiro’s final 25-man squad list for the 2023 AFCON which took place in Cote d’Ivoire from January 13 to February 11, 2024 and went ahead to become the talisman for Nigeria.

He made an assist for Victor Osimhen to net Nigeria’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Equatorial Guinea in their group A opener and was hugely instrumental to the Super Eagles qualifying for the knockout
stages.

Lookman scored both goals for the Super Eagles in their 2–0 win over Cameroon in the round of 16 before scoring their only goal in a 1–0 win over Angola in the quarter-final as they reached the semi-final where they beat South Africa on penalty shootout.

The Atalanta winger in the process became the fourth Nigerian to score three or more goals in the knockout rounds of a single AFCON edition, matching the record set by Odion Ighalo, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha and the late Rashidi Yekini.

Nigerians had expected Osimhen to be the talisman for the Super Eagles at the 2023 AFCON in terms of goalscoring but with Lookman taking up that mantle, his name became number one on the lips of his compatriots back at home and in the diaspora.

The 27-year-old was also included in the official team of the tournament for the 2023 AFCON, according to CAF.

Furthermore, Lookman also delivered for his club during the 2023/24 season and was the major reason Atalanta won their first ever European trophy after scoring a historic hat-trick in the final of the Europa League to help his side thrash Bayer Leverkusen 3-0.