Why Victor Osimhen Is Favourite To Win 2023 CAF Player Of The Year

It would be a shocker if Nigerian striker, Victor Osimhen doesn’t win the 2023 CAF African Player of the Year award in December.

Naija News has reported that Victor Osimhen was one of the 30 players nominated for the men’s CAF player of the year today, November 1, less than two days after finishing as the 8th best player in the world at the 2023 Ballon d’Or.

Recall that the 24-year-old Osimhen was nominated for the Ballon d’Or after scoring 26 goals and providing 5 assists to help his club, Napoli to win the Scudetto for the first time in 33 years.

Osimhen also finished the Italian Serie A season as the league’s top scorer and also won the best striker of the season award in Italy.

Aside from his performance in the league, Osimhen also performed very well for Napoli in the Champions League as he helped them to reach the quarter-final stage of the UCL for the first time in the history of the club with five goals in 6 games.

For the Super Eagles, Victor Osimhen was also fantastic before and during the period under review, November 2022 and September 2023. Even though he couldn’t help Nigeria qualify for the 2022 FIFA Cup in Qatar, he was able to help the Super Eagles qualify for the 2023 AFCON with ease.

Osimhen was so good during the qualification series that he scored a whopping ten goals and finished as the highest goalscorer in the entire campaign.

No player among the players nominated for the award performed as well as Victor Osimhen in the period under review including Achraf Hakimi of PSG and Morocca, and Hakim Ziyech of Morocco and Galatasaray who led their country to finish 4th at the 2022 World Cup.

The fact that France Football, the organizers of the biggest award in football, Ballon d’Or, recognized Osimhen as the 8th best player in the world, a position none of the CAF award nominees is close to, confirmed that there is nothing that should stop the Nigerian star from winning the 2023 CAF Player of the Year award on December 11 in Marrakech, Morocco.