Liverpool and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah has bagged the BBC African Footballer of the Year for the second year running.
“It’s a great feeling to win again. I’m happy and I would like to win it also next year!” he said, as quoted by AFP.
The star Egyptian footballer thus becomes the second player after Nigeria’s Jay-Jay Okocha to win the award for two consecutive years.
Fending off competition from the likes of Mehdi Benatia, Kalidou Koulibaly, Sadio Mane and Thomas Partey, Salah also joins former Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure as the players to have won this award twice.
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The other player was Nwankwo Kanu, who won the honour twice when it was of a bigger perspective as the African Sports Personality award.
Since joining Liverpool from Italian club AS Roma last season, Salah has been one of the most prolific forwards in the Premier League. He found the net 44 times in 52 matches for the Anfield club in all competitions and also led the Reds to the final of the Champions League where they were defeated by Real Madrid.
Recently, he arrested a slump in form with a hat-trick against Bournemouth in the Premier League and then followed it up with a crucial goal for his club in their Champions League group stage match against Napoli.
“There have been many good moments in 2018,” said the 26-year old.
“I’m scoring goals and helping the team to get the points to be top of the league. That’s always a great feeling,” he added.
Salah also helped Egypt make it to this year’s World Cup in Russia where he scored two times.
Earlier this year, Salah won the Players’ Player of the Year award and the Football Writers’ Player of the Year. He also is the winner of the 2017 CAF Player of the Year award.
(Image credit-The National)