Achraf Hakimi was named 2025 African Footballer of the Year, a result that left Mohamed Salah disappointed after the Liverpool forward had been the continent\u2019s highest-ranked player in the recent Ballon d\u2019Or ballot. The women\u2019s prize went to Ghizlane Chebbak, who top scored at the delayed 2024 Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations and helped her team finish as runners-up.<\/p>\n
Salah\u2019s 2024\u201325 was one of the most prolific individual campaigns in English football. The forward recorded 29 Premier League goals and 18 assists in 38 appearances as he led Liverpool\u2019s push toward only a second title in 35 years. Liverpool, however, fell short in both domestic cup competitions and were eliminated from the Champions League at the round of 16 by Hakimi\u2019s Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n
In September\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or voting Salah was fourth, behind Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, Lamine Yamal and Vitinha. Barcelona\u2019s Raphinha followed him, with Hakimi in sixth place. Hakimi\u2019s personal numbers and team success in 2024\u201325 were cited as decisive. The Paris Saint-Germain full back played 55 times across competitions as PSG completed a Ligue 1, Couple de France and Champions League treble. Hakimi\u2019s season produced 11 goals and 16 assists, his most productive campaign to date.<\/p>\n
CAF voters clearly placed significant weight on continental club success, with Champions League victory likely the deciding factor. On stage receiving his award, the Madrid-born player raised in a Moroccan household said: \u201cIt\u2019s really an honour for me to win this prestigious trophy. This trophy is not just for me\u2014it is for all the Africans that have dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Off the pitch, Salah has also endured criticism in the same week. A German media report accused him of holding back \u00a3116 million ($151.8 million) summer signing Florian Wirtz. Wirtz, who starred away from the Liverpool spotlight in Germany\u2019s 6\u20130 win over Slovakia to secure automatic World Cup qualification, has struggled since arriving from Bayer Leverkusen and was branded a \u201clittle boy\u201d by Gary Neville after a defeat to Manchester City. German publication Sport Bild wrote: \u201cIt\u2019s noticeable that he\u2019s overlooked Wirtz and hasn\u2019t made any of the other summer signings, who together cost around half a billion euros, shine.\u201d Sport Bild added: \u201cSalah has provided three assists this season, all of which led to goals, all for players who have been with the club longer.\u00a0Salah is increasingly becoming a major problem for Liverpool and Wirtz. He is the king of the champions, seemingly blocking their successful new beginning. And thus, the future of his successor as the attacking leader: Wirtz.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Achraf Hakimi wins African Footballer of the Year as Mohamed Salah faces vote setback and criticism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,1031,172],"tags":[1211,1064,1047],"class_list":["post-4571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-paris-saint-germain","category-epl","tag-africa-cup-of-nations","tag-ballon-dor-2","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}