By Arfang M.S. Camara
Scorpion’s trio Coach Tom Saintfiet, attacker Musa Barrow and defender James Gomez made it into the shortlist of nominations for the 2022 CAF Awards.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Thursday released the first list of nominees for the CAF Awards; featuring a 60-man shortlist for individual awards.
While the Belgian-Gambian Coach Tom Saintfiet made it to the Coach of the Year, Musa Barrow, who plays for Italian side Bologna is in the African Footballer of the Year category and James Gomez, who also plays for AC Horsens in Denmark is in the Young Player Category respectively.
Barrow who had a blistering outing in the last Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon is nominated along with the likes of Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and Senegal striker Sadio Mane who is the reigning African Footballer of the Year.
Gomez is also nominated alongside Pape Matar Sarr of Senegal, Hannibal Mejbri of Tunisia and Akinkunmi Amoo of Nigeria amongst others, while Coach Tom Saintfiet is also together with Aliou Cisse of Senegal, Carlos Quieroz of Egypt and Walid Regragui of Wydad Athletic Club amongst others.
Meanwhile, The Gambia National team (Scorpions) is in the 10 nominees for the national team of the year category.
This is the very first time that The Gambia is being selected to be part of the CAF Awards after making their first ever Afcon tournament in Cameroon.
According to the press statement by CAF, a stakeholder panel made up of Technical Experts, CAF Legends and Journalists decided on the list for the various categories taking into consideration the performance of the nominee from September 2021 to June 2022 at all levels.
The winners of each category will be decided by a voting panel made up of CAF Technical Committee, media professionals, Head Coaches and Captains of Member Associations and clubs involved in the group stage of the Interclub competitions.
The 2022 CAF Awards will be held on 21 July 2022 in Rabat, Morocco.
