Asisat Oshoala and Mohamed Salah crowned female and male 2017 African Players of the Year

SUPER Falcons striker Asisat Oshoala has been crowned the African Women's Player of the Year for the third year running at yesterday's Confederation of African Football awards in during which Egypt's Mohammed Salah was also named African Player of the Year.

At the event which took place in Accra,. the Ghanaian capital, Asisat won the award despite the Falcons not playing a single game during the course of 2017.  However, her performances for her new Chinese club Dalian Quanjian, saw her triumph ahead of Chrestina Kgatlana and Gabrielle Onguene.

Oshoala left Arsenal last February to go to China faced some criticism over the move. Last night, she said she felt vindicated by adding the 2017 continental crown to the ones she won in 2016 and 2014.

Asisat said: "When I left Arsenal a lot of people said your career is going to be gone but I told myself I can do this, and here we are today. I want to use this opportunity to encourage all the young girls out there, don't let anyone talk you down, don't listen to people, follow your heart."

Meanwhile, Liverpool's Salah won the men's award ahead of his club team-mate Sadio Mane and Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Salah played an important role at both the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, as Egypt reached the final and in qualification for the Pharaoh's first World Cup since 1990 and is also the Premier League’s second top scorer with 17 goals.

In what was a good night for Egypt,  the Pharaohs were recognised as men's national team of the year and their manager Hector Cuper, was named coach of the year. Former Ghanaian star Ibrahim Sunday was given a special legend award and the platinum award was given jointly to the president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo and the president-elect of Liberia George Weah.