Nigeria’s Super Falcons’ goalkeeper has again been adjudged the best woman goalkeeper in the continent.  She won the goalkeeper of the Year award at the CAF Awards 2024 held in Morocco.

She also won the award last year.

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Except for the unexpected, a common occurrence in sports, especially football, Nigeria and Atalanta player, Ademola Lookman is set to be crowned as the African Footballer of the Year 2024.

All eyes are on him winning the award following stellar performances both on the African football fields and elsewhere.

He was a star performer in Nigeria’s march to the final match of the Africa Cup of Nations, where he not only scored goals but also rendered valuable assists to his team’s goals.

Goal scoring is the object of football. Goal scoring is habitual to Lookman as he has in the current season scored 11 and offered five assists in 18 appearances for the Serie A side, Atalanta.

Beyond the Africa Cup of Nations, he had been a terror in the qualifying edition of the next edition.

Elsewhere, the hat trick he scored in the final match of the Europa Cup remains unique. As his first name, Ademola rightly depicts in the Yoruba language, he is worthy of the crown along with prestige and wealth.

He nonetheless has credible challengers in Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, Guinea’s Serhou Guirassy, Cote d’Ivoire Simon Adingra and South Africa’s Romwen Williams.

They are more of contestants rather than contenders.

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Last December in Marrakech, Nigeria won the two topmost football awards at the 2023 CAF Awards.

While Victor Osimhen was named the African Footballer of the Year, compatriot, Asisat Oshoala won the women’s version, making it a double for Nigeria.

It was not a strange occurrence. Mercy Akide, another Nigerian, won the maiden CAF Women’s Player of the Year award in 1999.

Akide’s achievement was historic, as she and Nwankwo Kanu became the first pair from the same country to win the top men’s and women’s honours.

For the second time, it happened in 2023. Will it be an encore this year with Ademola Lookman and Chiamaka Nnadozie hoping for another clean sweep?

Nnadozie has a mountain to climb as she hopes to be the first goalkeeper to win the topmost laurel of the CAF Awards.

Contesting with her are Zambia’s Barbra Banda and Morocco forward Sanaâ Mssoudy.

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