Liverpool star, Sadio Mane has been named 2019 African Player of the Year at a gala awards ceremony in Egypt on Tuesday, January 7, 2020.

The Senegalese winger beat fellow Liverpool teammate and winner, Mohammed Salah and Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez to win the award.

Sadio Mané, a Premier League top player playing for Liverpool and the Senegal national team is widely considered as one of the best players in the world.

In the same vein, Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala wins the award for 2019 CAF Awards for Best Women player.

Earlier in the day, Mane was hailed by Cesc Fabregas as the best player in the English premier league.

In 2018, Salah became the first player from the north of the continent to claim back-to-back titles.

Ivorian Yaya Toure, Samuel Eto’o from Cameroon and Senegalese El Hadji Diouf achieved the feat in a competition first staged 48 years ago with Malian Salif Keita voted number one.

Manchester City midfielder Toure, the younger brother of former Arsenal defender Kolo, went on to finish first four times in a row from 2011.

Eto’o and Ghanaian Abedi ‘Pele’ Ayew are also four-time Players of the Year winners, but not in consecutive years.

Paris-based France Football magazine organised the annual award until the mid-1990s when the Confederation of African Football (CAF) took over.

Votes from the national team and selected club coaches, CAF officials and unnamed ‘experts’ count toward deciding who lifts the trophy.

Salah scored 44 goals in all competitions for Liverpool last season, his first at Anfield after moving from Italian Serie A outfit Roma.