A post which surfaced on micro-blogging platform, X claims that Nigerian footballer, Ademola Lookman, has been awarded African best player of the year by the Confédération Africaine de Football, CAF.
On December 14, an X user, Gen_Buhar posted an image of Lookman with a caption that reads;”Congratulations to Ademola Lookman as he’s crowned the African Best Player”.
An image of Lookman, who also plays for Serie A club, Atlanta was posted with his name and inscription of the CAF trophy 2024 before him. The claim has attracted over 30,400 views, 19 replies, 138 reposts and quotes, 740 likes and 10 bookmarks as of the time this report was published.
VERIFICATION
The Punch had earlier reported that Lookman was shortlisted for the 2024 CAF men’s player of the year award. Other nominees up for the award includes Simon Adingra (Côte d’Ivoire & Brighton & Hove Albion); Serhou Guirassy (Guinea & Borussia Dortmund); Achraf Hakimi (Morocco & Paris Saint-Germain) and; Ronwen Williams (South Africa & Mamelodi Sundowns).
A visit to CAF website revealed that the ceremony for the 2024 CAF awards would happen in Marrakech, Morocco on Monday, December 16 2024 where the winner of the award will be announced as usual.
NV-A further visited CAF’s social media pages to check if the winner had been announced by the body but there had been no announcement, as of the time this report was published.
CONCLUSION
The claim that Lookman was crowned African best player of the year is MISLEADING as findings show that the award ceremony will be held in Marrakech, Morocco on December 16 and the winner will be announced and awarded at the ceremony.
