Why Lookman was the only choice despite Hakimi rumours

Ahead of Monday’s awards ceremony to honour the year’s outstanding achievements in the African game and to crown Ademola Lookman as Africa’s Footballer of the Year, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) had appeared to float the prospect that the Nigerian might miss out on a prize that appeared – from a distance – to be destined for him, writes ESPN.

Instead of whittling down the five-man shortlist for the FOTY prize to a final three for Monday’s ceremony in Morocco, as is traditional, CAF instead revealed that, because the voting was “too close to call”, all five nominees would be in attendance at the ceremony with any of the quintet still apparently in with a shot of winning the award.

This fuelled rumours throughout Monday, doing the rounds on Nigerian social media, and murmured in the hushed hallways of Marrakech’s Palais des Congrès, that Lookman might miss out on the gong, with Achraf Hakimi of Paris Saint-Germain to be honoured instead.

It wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility; the fullback had made the Ligue 1 Team of the Year while winning the title with PSG, and excelled at the Olympics as Morocco won the bronze medal.

Hakimi had finished second behind Victor Osimhen in 2023, and given his form both for club and country, and Morocco’s eminence within the confederation, the rumour began to gather momentum.

In truth, we’ve also been here before. Ademola Lookman has, perhaps, silenced his critics once and for all.

In 2008, Mohamed Aboutrika, then at the peak of his powers, clinched a CAF Champions League title with Al-Ahly and inspired Egypt to the second of their three-in-a-row Africa Cup of Nations titles, only to miss out to Emmanuel Adebayor of Arsenal.

It was the closest that one of the continent’s