Sadio Mane has been named the 2019 African Player of the Year. ’Tosin Oluwalowo Former Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo, has been dropped from the final three-man shortlist for the 2019 African Footballer of the Year awards.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced on Sunday a list of 30 nominees for the 2019 African Player of the Year award, which will be shortened down to three competing for the title. Mane is only the second Senegalese footballer to win the African Player of the Year award after El Hadji Diouf. Egyptian internationals Mohamed Salah, Liverpool striker, and Mahmoud Trezeguet, Aston Villa player, made it onto the list. Last year's winner Thembi Kgatlana of South Africa is also named. A Ghanaian international football star, he won the France Football Magazine African Player of the Year Award three times (1991, 1992, and 1993), was the first African player to win the BBC African Sports Star of the Year in 1992, and also the corresponding Confederation of African Football award, twice. African Player of the Year: Holder Mo Salah among 30 nominees. List includes Egyptian's Liverpool teammates Sadio Mane and Naby Keita

Sadio Mane was named African Footballer of the Year for 2019 on Tuesday to crown a year in which he won the Champions League with Liverpool and led Senegal to the Africa Cup of Nations final. The Girona forward made the 30-man shortlist for the Caf African Player of the Year award, released by the continental body Wednesday evening.