Mohamed Salah and Victor Osimhen, two of the biggest names in African football, have both been left off the 10-man shortlist for the 2026 CAF African Player of the Year award — and their absence, not the names on the list, is the story of this year's CAF Awards.
CAF unveiled the nominees on Wednesday, November 4, and the list is dominated by Morocco and Senegal, who provide three players each. Achraf Hakimi, the Paris Saint-Germain full-back who won the award in 2025, returns to defend his title, but there is no place for Salah, the two-time winner from 2017 and 2018, and none for Osimhen, who took the crown in 2023. Ademola Lookman, the 2024 winner, is missing too — meaning Nigeria, which produced the winner in 2023 and 2024, has no nominee at all this year, and by several reports no Nigerian nominee in any of the seven men's categories.
The Full 10-Man Shortlist
The ten nominees for African Player of the Year 2026 are:
- Achraf Hakimi (Morocco, Paris Saint-Germain) — the defending winner
- Brahim Diaz (Morocco, Real Madrid)
- Ismael Saibari (Morocco, Bayern Munich)
- Ismaila Sarr (Senegal, Crystal Palace)
- Pape Gueye (Senegal, Villarreal)
- Sadio Mane (Senegal, Al-Nassr) — a former winner himself
- Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast, Manchester United)
- Yoane Wissa (DR Congo, Newcastle United)
- Antoine Semenyo (Ghana, Manchester City)
- Teboho Mokoena (South Africa, Mamelodi Sundowns)
The full list of nominees across the CAF Awards categories was reported by Football in Nigeria, and the shape of the men's list is impossible to miss: it follows the year Africa had, not the reputations the players carried into it. Morocco's trio were central to their country's AFCON triumph in January 2026, while Senegal's three reflect a side that went deep in the same tournament — a title Senegal have since appealed, with a decision on that disputed final expected at the end of November.
Why Salah and Osimhen Miss Out
Salah's omission is the biggest shock on the list. Reporting on the shortlist notes that the Egyptian dragged his country to the AFCON semi-finals and to the World Cup round of 16 — a first in Egypt's history — but that his club season with Trabzonspor, the Turkish club he joined on a free transfer in the summer of 2026, was patchy by his own extraordinary standards. CAF's voters, it seems, weighed the club season more heavily than the international heroics. You can read where Salah now sits among the continent's all-time greats in our ranking of the greatest African players in Premier League history, where his closed Premier League record of 193 goals still stands above everyone.
Osimhen's absence carries a different weight in Nigeria. The Galatasaray striker remains the country's biggest football export, but his year has been disrupted at the worst possible time: as we reported on November 7, he has just undergone arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, with Galatasaray confirming the operation and giving no return date. Add Nigeria's failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, and the Super Eagles' miserable year is written all over this shortlist: no Osimhen, no Lookman, no Nigerian anywhere near the main prize — in a year when the ceremony itself will be held in Lagos, in December, with reports differing on the exact date.
So What Does It Mean?
This shortlist is a changing of the guard, whether CAF intended it or not. For a decade, the African Player of the Year conversation began with Salah, Mane and, later, Osimhen. Mane is still here, but as the elder statesman; the centre of gravity has shifted to the AFCON-winning Moroccan generation, and to players like Semenyo and Amad whose club seasons in England could not be ignored. Hakimi, a defender who won the award in 2025 and remains the heartbeat of both PSG and Morocco, starts as the clear favourite to retain it — and a second straight win would confirm that African football's biggest individual prize now runs through Rabat and Paris, not Cairo or Lagos. On the women's side, CAF says WAFCON winners Cameroon dominate the Women's Player of the Year list through Monique Ngock, Michaely Bihina and Marie Ngah Manga — the same tournament-first logic applied across both awards.
Beyond the Final Whistle verdict: Salah can feel hard done by — no Egyptian has ever carried his country as far as he carried them this year — but Osimhen's omission, in a year wrecked by World Cup failure and now knee surgery, tells the truer story: this award has stopped rewarding fame and started rewarding the year just played. That is healthier for African football, even if it stings in Lagos. The argument worth having is whether a patchy club season should really erase a historic international one.
Who should win the 2026 CAF African Player of the Year — Hakimi again, or has Salah been robbed? Let us know in the comments.
/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.soccernet.ng%2Fmain%2F2025%2F09%2Fimago1066232388.jpg)
