Egyptian Mohamed Salah Ghaly is the 2017 African Player of The Year. The Liverpool forward was crowned Africa’s best at the CAF Awards gala in Accra, Ghana Thursday night.

Salah beat teammate and Senegal goal poacher Sadio Mane and 2015 winner, Gabon and Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre Emmerick Aubameyang, to the biggest individual prize in African football.

The 25-year-old former Roma player stood out throughout the year for both club and country and was widely expected to bag the gong.

He was instrumental in Egypt’s runners-up finish in the 2017 AFCON and later World Cup qualification, which came after near three-decade wait.

Overall, Salah netted five times and assisted twice in ten outings for the Pharaohs.

At Club level he boasts twenty three goals and eight assists in twenty nine appearances to this end.

Mane who finished runners-up in the award was equally important for the Teranga Lions, who also qualified for the World Cup for the first time since France 1998.

The former Southampton striker has so far scored twelve goals and assisted seven more for Liverpool.

Aubameyang’s club statistics are much superior at 41 goals and 5 assists in 47 matches, but lags behind at international level where he only made 4 appearances and scoring twice.