adminZIMBABWE international midfielder Marshall Munetsi’s fine season in the Ligue 1 has been rewarded with a nomination for one of the most prestigious awards in French football.
The 26-year-old has now been shortlisted for the Marc-Vivien Foe award.
This accolade is given to the best performing African in Ligue 1 – which has traditionally contained footballers from the continent.
Munetsi is into his fourth season at Stade Reims and has been turning heads with commanding midfield performances that have left him with six goals and three assists playing in central midfield.
Through this campaign, there has also been constant talk of a move to the English Premier League with Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth mentioned along with Burnley and Watford.
On Monday, Munetsi was named amongst the 11 players in contention for the award given to a player who has featured for an African national team and has not changed his nationality since then and gone on to make at least 15 Ligue 1 appearances in the season in question.
The winner will be announced on May 30.
Munetsi has put together 29 appearances this season with a return of six goals.
Munetsi played for FC Cape Town, Baroka, Orlando Pirates through the four years that he spent in South Africa after arriving from Zimbabwe as a teenager.
He played 22 games at FC Cape Town under Craig Rosslee and Johnny Ferreira before being snapped up by Orlando Pirates who immediately sent him out on loan to Baroka where he played 32 games.
Upon his return to Pirates for the 2017/18 season, he featured in 14 games in the second half of the season under Milutin Sredojevic then went up to 23 appearances for the next season before leaving for France in 2019.
At Reims his influence has been without any doubt with his numbers at 21, 30 (one goal), 24 (five goals), and 29 (six goals) in the four years that he has spent at the club.
The 11 finalists:
ABDELHAMID Yunis, defender (Morocco/Reims)
BALDÉ Mama, forward (Guinea-Bissau/Troyes)
CAMARA Mohamed, midfielder (Mali/Monaco)
DIALLO Habib, forward (Senegal/Strasbourg)
FOFANA Seko, midfielder (Ivory Coast/Lens)
HAKIMI Achraf, defender (Morocco/PSG)
MBEMBA Chancel, defender (DR Congo/Marseille)
MOFFI Terem, forward (Nigeria/Nice)
MUNETSI Marshall, midfielder (Zimbabwe/Reims)
TRAORÉ Hamari, defender (Mali/Rennes)
SAMED Salis Abdul, midfielder (Ghana/Lens) – KickOff
Online Reporter