Riyad Mahrez A Deserved 2016 African Footballer Of The Year.
Mahrez nomination and winning the African footballer of the year 2015 edition was never a surprise to anyone who knows football very well though Patrick -Emerick Aubameyang would also be seen as a strong contender going by his current form and even his form last season in which he won the top African honour. Looking into the votes casted, the margin with which Mahrez won was somewhat closer to that of Aubameyang (361 to 313). This shows Aubameyang is also a good man for the honor he won last time but hitherto, have to settle for a second place .The third best man in Africa Sadio Mane got 186 votes, the Sinigaleas heat man has been in fine form for Liverpool and is a deserved man for the third position.
Mahrez who won the PFA player of the year last season scored 17 goals as he was selected ahead of team mates N'golo Kante, Jamie Vardy,as well as Payer and Ozil to win the award. The 25 years old is among the French born players to win African Footballer of the year after Frederic Kanoute and Aubameyang. And he is the third Algerian international to have won the award after the likes of Lakhdar Bellini (1981) and Rabah Madjer (1987).
With Mahrez deep in form with Leicester this season and finding it difficult to replicate last seasons form resulting in Leicester down to 15th on the premier league table thus far. It remains to see if the win of African footballer of the year will motivate him to find his form back in the second half of premier league. If he does, fine but if not, then he may have to leave the contest for the 2017 African footballer of the year for Aubameyang and Mane to contest for, both of which are in fine forms respectively, or perhaps any other player who will pick form.
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