Victor Osimhen and Asisat Oshoala made it an all-Nigeria double at the 2023 CAF Awards, just as Nwankwo Kanu and Mercy Akide did so back in 1999.
‘Marvelous’ Mercy Akide won the inaugural CAF Player of the Year Award for women in 1999, same year Kanu won his second such recognition after he first won it in 1996.
“I feel blessed to have been the first woman to win this award back then in 1999,” recalled Akide.
Winning it at the same time with a legend and fellow Nigerian like Kanu was very special and I think it was the beginning of recognition for women’s football in Africa.”
She added: “I am excited that other Nigerians (Osimhen, Oshoala) have done it again and I hope that we will see more of this in future.
“If anybody had told me that it would take so many years before another Nigerian man would win it again, I don’t think any of us would have believed it, but that’s football and God knows best.
“I am proud of all the winners and I hope that as Nigeria has won so many awards tonight (Monday), this will be the start of more success for our football, from the AFCON in January to the women winning their own AFCON too and then to the FIFA World Cup.”
