Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson is asking an important question from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) after excluding him and others from the Men’s Player of Year Award nominees list.
CAF released a 10-man shortlist yesterday led by top favourite Super Eagles and Atalanta forward Ademola Lookman alongside William Troost-Ekong and Achraf Hakimi.
The list has been generating debate on social media as some top stars were excluded, including Bayer Leverkusen striker Victor Boniface and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
Real Madrid attacker Brahim Diaz, who switched his international allegiance from Spain to Morocco this year and whom many touted would finish in the top three, was also not considered.
Chelsea forward Jackson is one of the names circulating on social media in the list of notable omissions, and he has bought his own hype and asked the governing body a question.
As spotted by ESPN Africa, the striker shared a post on his Instagram story, which mentioned the names of those omitted and captioned with an asking caption.
“What happened @caf_online,” he wrote....Read Full Article [Click Here>]
Fans quickly shut down the Senegalese striker’s excitement with claims that because the Africa Cup of Nations was played this year, the award tilted towards top performers at the tournament.
A Nigerian journalist who pleaded anonymity to protect the relationship spoke to Legit.ng, claiming Jackson is probably misunderstood and not speaking for himself.
“Jackson is probably speaking on behalf of others, particularly Victor Boniface and Mohamed Salah, but since the graphics include him, it is thought that he believes he should be nominated. Unless he’s buying his hype from the noise around, he hasn’t genuinely earned the right to be named,” he said.
“He had a fair first season in his first season at Chelsea but was also complicit in some damaging big chances missed. He had a minority role for Senegal at AFCON.
“He is growing and getting better with each passing game and is certainly one to watch out for in the award in the coming years, but to think he should make the shortlist for this year is a bit too far.”
As noted by Transfermarkt, the former Villarreal striker, in his first season at Stamford Bridge, scored 17 goals and provided six assists in 44 games.
He played only 96 minutes at AFCON 2023, coming off the bench in all four games. His first goal for the Teranga Lions came against Malawi two weeks ago.
