AFCON 2021: Mane, Aboubakar and Mendy emerge award winners as Salah makes Best XI
The 33rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations staged in Cameroon came to a befitting end as Senegal beat Egypt on penalties to win their first ever AFCON trophy.
Vincent Aboubakar emerged the top scorer of the competition with the Al Nassr goal poacher scoring 8 goals to power the host to a third place finish in the football festival.
Aboubakar scored in his first four games in the event. The 2017 AFCON winner opened his goal account in the tournament with a brace against the Stallions of Burkina Faso in the opening game of the tournament.
He grabbed another brace in Cameroon’s 4-1 win over the Walia Antelopes of Ethiopia in the team’s second Group A fixture, before finding the back of the net again against Comoros Islands in the round of 16.
The ex-FC Porto man rounded off the race with a brace against Burkina Faso in the tournament’s third place game held at the Yaounde Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium last weekend.
Vincent Aboubakar felt short of a goal to equal Zaire’s (DR Congo) Pierre N. Mulamba who spanked in 9 goals during the 1974 AFCON in Egypt to seat as all-time lead scorer in an AFCON tournament.
Senegal forward, Sadio Mane was adjudged the Most Valuable Player, MVP of the tournament after inspiring Senegal to its maiden crown in the continent’s premier football event.
Mane scored three goals for the Coach Aliou Cisse led Senegalese team. He scored the team’s opening goal of the tournament against the Warriors of Zimbabwe before also striking against Cape Verde Islands in the round of 16 and Burkina Faso in the semifinal stage.
The forward also contributed three assists for team captain, Kalidou Koulibaly and mates.
The 2019 African Player of the Year also scored the final penalty kick in Senegal’s 4-2 win against Egypt in the final of the 33rd AFCON competition as Senegal clinched the title after two failed attempts in 2002 in Mali and 2019 in Egypt.
Read: AFCON 2021: Black Stars players received $20,000 as appearance fee
Sadio Mane joins the ranks of the likes of Ismael Bennacer who won the MVP award at the end of the 32nd edition held in Egypt in 2019 and Cameroon’s Christian Bassogog who grabbed the award in 2017.
Senegal Teranga Lions goalkeeper, Edouard Mendy was awarded as Best Goalkeeper with the 30-year-old taking home the prestigious award despite multiple challenges faced in the course of the tournament.
The Chelsea keeper missed Senegal’s first two games in the group stages after testing positive to the novel Coronavirus.
Despite the challenges, the former Stade Rennais goalkeeper displayed pure mastery and resilience in the course of the competition since his debut against the Flames of Malawi where he kept a clean sheet.
Mendy recorded another clean sheet against the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde at the Kouekong Omnisport Stadium in the round of 16 where Senegal humbled the Islanders 2 nil.
Despite conceding in two consecutive games against the Nzalang National of Equatorial Guinea and Burkina Faso at the quarter finals and the semifinals respectively, the physically gifted keeper kept a highly applauded clean sheet against record seven time African champions, Egypt in the final.
The shot-stopper further confirmed his status as FIFA awarded Best Goalkeeper with a vital penalty save that led to Senegal grabbing its first trophy in the Africa Cup of Nations competition.
Edouard Mendy tipped of Mahmad Marwan’s shot before Liverpool’s Sadio Mane powered in the winner for the West Africans. The keeper defeated tipped favorite, Egypt’s Mohamed Abou Gabal to the 10,000 US Dollars award.
He enters a list of greats occupied by the likes of Egypt’s Essam El Hadary who won the award three times in 2006, 2008 and 2010.
The trio alongside Mohammed Salah have also been included in the Confederation of African Football’s best team of the tournament.
The announced of the team was done on Monday evening and it was a collection of the tournament’s best players as determined by the Technical Study Group that was tasked with assessing the football played during the tournament and choosing the various best players from all the matches that were contested during the competition.
In addition to Salah, Mane and Mendy, there were players like Achraf Hakimi of Morocco, Edmund Tapsoba of Burkina Faso who all made the starting eleven.
Comoros captain, Youssouf M’Changama was named as part of the substitutes together with Collins Fai, Karl Ekambi Toko and Andre Anguissa, all of Cameroon.
In all, the team was made up of players from Cameroon, Morocco, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Egypt and Comoros and it was set up in a 4-3-3 formation.
