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RABAT. — Another chapter in the personal rivalry between former Liverpool teammates Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah will play out in Rabat tonight when the annual African football award winners are announced.
Mane was a key figure in the Senegal team that defeated Salah-captained Egypt in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations final and in a 2022 World Cup playoff.
Both the African title decider in Cameroon and the Qatar eliminator in Senegal were won by the Teranga Lions after penalty shoot-outs.
Mane scored in each shoot-out while the final was decided before Salah could take his kick, and he blazed wide in the playoff.
The Senegalese successes have made Mane favourite to win a second straight Player of the Year award after 2019 — the following two editions were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Should Mane win in the Moroccan capital, he will become the first Bayern Munich star to be voted the top African footballer.
The closest a player from the German giants has come to winning was in 1999 and 2001 when Ghanaian Samuel Kuffour finished second.
Mane moved to Bayern last month on a three-year deal after joining Liverpool in 2016 from Southampton and Anfield boss Jurgen Klopp calls him “a complete forward”. — AFP
Online Reporter