Former Liverpool winger El Hadji Diouf believes Mané will succeed him as the only Senegal international to have won the African Footballer of the Year Award, in 2001 and 2002
On Tuesday, January 7, CAF will announce the winner of the African Footballer of the Year at a ceremony in Hurgada in Egypt.
The three candidates for the continent’s most prestigious individual football award are Senegal’s Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah of Egypt, both from Liverpool, and Algeria captain Riyad Mahrez from Manchester City.
Mané is highly favoured to claim the award following a brilliant 2018/19 campaign that ended with the UEFA Champions League title.
“I am 1000% sure Mané will win it on Tuesday,” Diouf said in Dakar.
“I am proud of what he has done. And if it were left for me a Senegalese ought to win the award this year. Mané’s success cannot be overlooked by anybody.
“Imagine when he placed 4th in the Ballon d’Or people were not happy at so many quarters. And now you want to ignore him again, in Africa?
“I don’t think anybody deserves it more than him,” he said.
Senegal reached the final of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations won by Algeria.
