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Salah favourite to complete awards hat-trick

Liverpool star Mohamed Salah hopes to add the African Player of the Year award in Ghana Thursday to his rapidly expanding collection of individual honours.

The Egyptian, scorer of 23 goals in all competitions midway through his first season at Anfield, has been voted BBC African Footballer of the Year and Arab Player of the Year.

Salah, Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane of Senegal and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund and Gabon are the contenders for the highest African individual football honour.

The scoring feats of Salah have installed him as the public and media favourite to succeed Algerian Riyad Mahrez of Leicester City as the No 1 African footballer.

"I want to be the best Egyptian footballer ever," said Salah after receiving the BBC award last month.

"When I came to Liverpool I hoped to show everyone my abilities. I scored a lot of goals with Roma and am very happy being successful at Liverpool."

Salah also starred for Egypt, scoring five of the goals that qualified his country for the 2018 World Cup in Russia after a 28-year absence from the global showpiece.

Mane will also be in Russia next June, adding abundant creativity to a physically formidable Senegal side.

Gabon did not qualify and Aubameyang shunned several World Cup call-ups, a fact that could count against him.

Salah and Mane will leave Accra soon after the awards ceremony as Liverpool have a Friday night FA Cup third-round derby date with Everton.

However, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp did not hesitate to release his African duo for the Accra ceremony, which will include six other awards.

"It is a sign of respect," he told reporters in Liverpool. "We sleep in a hotel and they sleep in a plane. That is the only difference."

Salah is a doubt for the Merseyside showdown, though, having missed the English Premier League victory at Burnley this week owing to a groin strain.

Should Salah be named Player of the Year, he will be only the second Egyptian after 1983 winner Mahmoud al Khatib to hoist the symbol of individual brilliance.

It would be the first time since 1986 that north Africans have won successive editions of the poll, which this year involved national coaches, journalists, officials and the public.

Morocco midfielder Mohamed Timoumi was the 1985 winner, followed by compatriot Badou Zaki, one of two goalkeepers to be voted the best African footballer.

Footballers from the west of the continent have dominated recently with Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon and Yaya Toure of the Ivory Coast each winning four times.

While Salah has made the top three for the first time, prolific Bundesliga scorer Aubameyang finished first once and second twice in the past three award ceremonies.

Mane came third last season, but his valuable input for Liverpool has been overshadowed by Salah, second in the Premier League scorers' charts behind Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur.

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