Leicester City’s Algeria forward Riyad Mahrez on Thursday won the 2016 Glo-CAF African Player of the Year award at the International Conference Centre in Abuja.
The BBC African Footballer of the Year 2016 award winner made the final three-man shortlist alongside Borussia Dortmund’s Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Liverpool’s Senegalese attacker Sadio Mane for the award ceremony sponsored by telecommunications firm Globacom.
The three players will be representing their countries at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon.
Aubameyang, who won the award at the same venue last year after scoring 25 Bundesliga goals to end as the league’s second-top scorer behind Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski last season, came second in the contest. Mane, who has been a revelation since arriving at Anfield from Southampton this summer for around £30m, placed third.
French-born Mahrez scored 17 Premier League goals for Leicester last season to help the club win the Premier League.
However, the 25-year-old has hit the back of the net only three times this season and has failed to influence any game for Algeria in the Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
Manchester City’s Nigeria forward Kelechi Iheanacho won the Most Promising Player of the Year award, while his Super Eagles’ teammate Alex Iwobi picked up the Youth Player of the Year gong.
Arsenal Ladies and Nigeria forward Asisat Oshoala won the Women’s Player of the Year award. Oshoala, who was the leading scorer at the Cameroon 2016 African Women’s Nations Cup with six goals, won the award two years ago.
Eighth-time African champions Super Falcons were voted the Women’s National Team of the Year, Uganda emerged as the Men’s National Team of the Year.
CAF Champions League champions Mamelodi Sundowns won the Club of the Year award.
Uganda and Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper Dennis Onyango was voted the Player of the Year (based in Africa).