The Uganda Cranes have fallen short of making it to the final five nominees for the Men’s National Team of the Year at the CAF Awards 2024.
This comes after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) unveiled its final shortlist yesterday, ahead of the awards ceremony set to take place in Marrakech, Morocco, on December 16, 2024.
Uganda, which initially secured a spot in the top ten teams, was edged out alongside hosts Morocco, Angola, Burkina Faso, and Mozambique.
The final five nominees include AFCON 2023 champions Ivory Coast, finalists Nigeria, semi-finalists DR Congo and South Africa, and Sudan.
Despite qualifying for next year’s AFCON with two games to spare, the Cranes could not replicate the glory of 2016, when they were named Men’s National Team of the Year after ending a 39-year AFCON drought, by qualifying for the 2017 edition.
Meanwhile, former Uganda Cranes coach Sebastien Desabre, who guided Uganda the last time they featured at AFCON in 2019, is among the top five nominees for the Men’s Coach of the Year.
Now the head coach of DR Congo, Desabre joins Pedro Goncalves (Angola), Emerse Fae (Ivory Coast), Hugo Broos (South Africa), and Marcel Koller (Al Ahly) on the prestigious shortlist.
In individual categories, Nigeria forward Ademola Lookman, Cote d’Ivoire’s Simon Adingra, Guinea’s Serhou Guirassy, Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, and South Africa’s Ronwen Williams have been named as the top five contenders for Men’s Player of the Year.
Williams, in particular, has been a standout, also securing nominations in the Goalkeeper of the Year and Interclub Player of the Year categories.
The Goalkeeper of the Year shortlist also includes Cameroon’s Andre Onana, Yahia Fofana (Cote d’Ivoire), Mostafa Shobeir (Egypt) and Stanley Nwabali (Nigeria)
In the Men’s Club of the Year category, Tanzanian giants Simba SC and Young Africans SC missed out, with Al Ahly and Zamalek (Egypt), RS Berkane (Morocco), Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa), and Esperance Sportive de Tunis (Tunisia) making the cut.
The CAF Awards 2024 will be recognising achievements on the continental scene between January and October 2024.
