The Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Thursday released the first list of nominees for the CAF Awards featuring a 60-man shortlist for individual awards.
Belgian Coach Tom Saintfiet made it to the Coach of the Year, Musa Barrow who plays for Italian side Bologna is in the African Footballer of the Year category while James Gomez who plays for AC Horsens in Denmark is in the Young Player Category.
Barrow, who had a blistering outing in the last Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon is nominated along with the likes of Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and Senegalese striker Sadio Mane who is the reigning African Footballer of the Year.
Gomez is nominated alongside Pape Matar Sarr of Senegal, Hannibal Mejbri of Tunisia and Akinkunmi Amoo of Nigeria amongst others, while Coach Tom Saintfiet is nominated together with Aliou Cisse of Senegal, Carlos Quieroz of Egypt and Walid Regragui of Wydad Athletic Club, among others.
Meanwhile, The Gambia National team (Scorpions) is also nominated in the 10 national teams of the year category.
The nomination is the first time that The Gambia is being selected to be part of the CAF Awards after making its first ever Afcon appearance in Cameroon.
According to the press statement by CAF, a stakeholder panel made up of Technical Experts, CAF Legends and Journalists decided on the list for the various categories taking into consideration the performance of the nominee from September 2021 to June 2022 at all levels.
The winners of each category will be decided by a voting panel made up of CAF Technical Committee, media professionals, Head Coaches and Captains of Member Associations and clubs involved in the group stage of the Inter-club competitions.
The 2022 CAF Awards will be held on 21st July 2022 in Rabat, Morocco.
