The African Golden Ball will be awarded this Monday in Marrakech, Morocco. Achraf Hakimi will therefore play at home and has a legitimate chance of winning. The Paris Saint-Germain right-back is in the running to succeed Victor Osimhen on the list of this prestigious award which crowns the best player on the African continent of the year.
The Lion of the Atlas is in the running with Simon Adingra, winner of the CAN with Ivory Coast this year, Serhou Guirassy, serial scorer for Stuttgart then Borussia Dortmund, Ademola Lookman, triple scorer in the final of the Europa League and finally Ronwen Williams, the impressive South African goalkeeper of Mamelodi Sundowns.
The ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. and Nasser Al-Khelaïfi will be present to support his player. , The president of PSG will however not travel in the company of the 26-year-old footballer. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., he will be in Lausanne (Switzerland) to participate in a meeting of the UEFA executive committee, of which he is a member.
With the capital club, Hakimi was crowned champion of France and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League last season. With the Moroccan selection, he won the bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, participating with a carded goal against Egypt in the match for 3rd place (6-0).
Since the start of the current financial year, he has been one of the strong men of PSG. A sign of the confidence Luis Henrique places in him, he will play his 59th match with Paris against Lyon in 2024. He has worn the captain’s armband twice in Ligue 1 and is regularly decisive. In all competitions, he has scored three goals and six assists since the start of the season.
If he wins the African Ballon d’Or, the Parisian would be the first Moroccan to receive this distinction since Mustapha Hadji in 1998.
