Ademola Lookman was named 2024 African Participant of the Yr on Monday on the Confederation of African Soccer Awards in Marrakech.
Zambia’s Barbra Banda was named African Girls’s Participant of the Yr after a profitable 12 months with Orlando Delight the place she scored the title-winning aim towards Kansas Metropolis to make sure her facet might declare a first-ever NWSL Championship.
Former Everton and Fulham ahead, Lookman clinched the boys’s prize forward of Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, Brighton and Ivory Coast winger Simon Adingra, Guinea’s Serhou Guirassy and South Africa goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
His award follows a powerful marketing campaign that noticed the 27-year-old rating a hat-trick as Atalanta gained the Europa League last towards an unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen in Might.
Ademola Lookman discusses how he is put powerful Premier League spells behind him and his plans to proceed his success at Atalanta
His three objectives throughout the African Cup of Nations additionally helped Nigeria attain the finals within the Ivory Coast the place they have been overwhelmed by the competitors’s hosts.
Lookman turns into the seventh Nigerian to take the award and succeeds final 12 months’s winner Victor Osimhen.
The Nigeria Worldwide endured a troublesome interval throughout his latter days within the Premier League. His try at a stoppage-time Panenka penalty in 2020 towards West Ham that was simply caught by Lukasz Fabianski stays notorious as Fulham misplaced 1-0 and have been later relegated that season.
Referencing the low level throughout his profitable speech, Lookman stated:
“Simply over 4 years in the past, I failed in entrance of the world. Quick ahead 4 years and I am one of the best participant in Africa.
“To the younger kids and folks watching this, do not let your failures weigh you down that they break your wings. Flip your ache into your energy and proceed to fly.”
AFCON Winners Ivory Coast have been named Males’s Nationwide Group of the Yr whereas Nigeria claimed the Girls’s award.
