As the best players from the African continent gather in Marrakech, Morocco for the 2024 CAF Awards on Monday, we are set to write another chapter in the history of the Men’s Player of the Year prize.

It is an award that has been handed out in many guises down the years, starting with France Football magazine in 1970, before the Confédération Africaine de Football took over the administering of the Player of the Year in 1992.

Five nominees remain for 2024, Cote d’Ivoire and Brighton & Hove Albion winger Simon Adingra is among the contenders, along with Borussia Dortmund’s Guinea international striker Serhou Guirassy and Morocco right-back Achraf Hakimi, who plays for Paris Saint-Germain.

Atalanta’s exciting winger Ademola Lookman will be the pick of Nigeria fans, while Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams will hope his exploits for South Africa at TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 see him claim the prize.

The winner will be unveiled at the 2024 CAF Awards which are to be staged at Marrakech’s Palais des Congrès on Monday with the ceremony set to kick off at 19h00 local time (18h00 GMT/ 20h00 Cairo time/ 21h00 East African time). 

Past winners of the African Footballer of the Year award, which was first introduced more than a half century ago, come from 17 different Member Associations of CAF.

Cameroon are way ahead on the list of countries with the most awards, enjoying a total of 11 from Roger Milla’s first in 1976 to 2010 when Samuel Eto’o won the last of his record-breaking number of four triumphs.

The achievement of four awards for Eto’o was matched by Yaya Toure, who won his successively from 2011-2014.

Along with two awards for compatriot Didier Drogba, it means Cote d’Ivoire are joint second on the list of successful countries with a total of six awards.

This is shared with Nigeria, whose six awards are spread across Nwankwo Kanu (twice), Emmanuel Amunike, Victor Ikpeba, Victor Osimhen and Rashidi Yekini. The fearsome striker Osimhen was last year’s winner.

Ghana has five awards, including three in a row for Abedi Pele, whose son Dede Ayew was third in 2015.

Countries To Win The Men’s Player Of The Year

11 – Cameroon

6 – Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria

5 – Ghana

4 – Morocco, Senegal

3 – Algeria, Egypt, Liberia

2 – Mali

1 – Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Togo, Tunisia, Zaire (now DR Congo), Zambia