After nearly three decades, a Moroccan football player has been crowned Best African Male Footballer of the Year; and it’s no one other than Achraf Hakimi. The 27-year-old PSG right-back— currently sidelined with a serious injury that could jeopardize his participation in the next edition of AFCON on home soil– accepted the accolade during the annual CAF Awards ceremony held near Rabat.
The athlete had an outstanding season with PSG. He spent the year sweeping up every imaginable major title, posting numbers that others could only dream of. Champions League? Check. Ligue 1? Check. Coupe de France and Trophée des Champions? Double check.
But all this silverware only tells half the story. What really sealed it was his consistency on the pitch as the former Real Madrid academy player put up numbers that seem nearly impossible. And by the end of the season, the tally was almost absurd, with 11 goals and 16 assists across 55 matches. For a right-back, or a football player in general, that’s a benchmark only a rare few have ever touched and even fewer managed to surpass.
He is the fifth Moroccan to win the title, joining Ahmed Faras (1975), Mohamed Timoumi (1985), Badou Zaki (1986), and Mustapha Hadji (1998).
Meanwhile, on the women’s side, Morocco carved out another first as Ghizlane Chebbak was named Best African Female Footballer of the Year— a historic moment for both the North African Kingdom and the Arab world. The momentum kept rolling with Yassine Bounou crowned Men’s Goalkeeper of the Year, Doha El Madani taking Women’s Young Player, Othmane Maamma earning Men’s Young Player, and the Morocco U20s securing Men’s National Team of the Year.
Pulling six awards from sixteen categories doesn’t happen by chance. With the U20s crowned world champions, the U17s deep in their own World Cup, and the senior squad on a historic winning streak, Morocco’s footballing trajectory looks ahead of schedule, with the forthcoming editions of AFCON and the World Cup serving as the next pressure tests for a project that’s already been pushing past expectations.