Like any individual award, the Ballon d’Or is contested by those who saw Achraf Hakimi winning at home.
Having left for Morocco to follow the African Ballon d’Or ceremony, Achraf Hakimi came accompanied by its president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi. The two men were convinced of having a great chance of winning this individual title because of the great year experienced by the Atlas Lions full-back. Untenable with PSG, he is now one of the best players. But it was not enough to overtake Ademola Lookman, the Nigerian international from Atalanta Bergamo, who was elected African Ballon d’Or for 2024.
Lookman deserves his title
A small surprise, even an injustice, for Moroccan followers and for PSG enthusiasts, who hoped to see Hakimi build on his very good form to win a striking individual trophy. As a result, when Lookman was rewarded, criticism fell. They are swept away by a great specialist in African football, in the person of Patrick Juillard. “ I’ve been reading everywhere since last night that the African player of the year should have been Achraf Hakimi. Thank you for telling me that he won a European Cup with a hat-trick in the final, played in a CAN final and was the most decisive player in his championship over the calendar year », Underlined the journalist who works in particular for RFI. A way of reminding us to underline that the Nigerian still had an impressive year in 2024, both in terms of efficiency and results, without forgetting his famous stunning hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final.
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