{"id":905435,"date":"2026-05-13T08:17:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/caf-awards-hakimi-osimhen-diaz-set-for-poty-showdown-in-nigeria\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:17:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:17:33","slug":"caf-awards-hakimi-osimhen-diaz-set-for-poty-showdown-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/caf-awards-hakimi-osimhen-diaz-set-for-poty-showdown-in-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"CAF Awards: Hakimi, Osimhen, Diaz set for POTY showdown in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soccer <\/p>\n

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\"Soccer<\/p>\n

Asisat Oshoala and Victor Osimhen with CAF President Patrice Motsepe at the 2023 CAF awards [Photo credit\/X]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nigeria\u00a0will\u00a0welcome several high-profile visitors later this year following\u00a0the latest development from the Confederation of African Football (CAF),\u00a0Soccernet.ng<\/u><\/a>\u00a0reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The West African nation is set to host the 48th CAF Ordinary General Assembly as well as the CAF Awards ceremony, both scheduled to take place later this year.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0CAF Ordinary General Assembly, which holds annually and usually brings\u00a0together prominent\u00a0figures in African football last held in Kinshasa, Congo in 2025.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the 2026 CAF Awards ceremony will also be hosted in Nigeria, marking the first time the country will stage the event since 2017. It will also be the fifth time in history that the country will host the prestigious awards ceremony, following previous editions in Lagos and Abuja, as confirmed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.<\/p>\n

\"Soccer
Nigerian president Bola Tinubu gives a press conference. Copyright: xCezardxGabrielle\/Pool\/ABACAxImago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soccer Nigeria set to host\u00a0major 2026 CAF events<\/h2>\n

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved Nigeria\u2019s bid to host the upcoming CAF General Assembly in October, which will mark the 48th edition of the event, alongside the CAF Awards ceremony.<\/p>\n

The decision was\u00a0finalized\u00a0during the ongoing African summit in Nairobi, Kenya<\/a>, where Tinubu met with CAF President Patrice Motsepe and reaffirmed Nigeria\u2019s commitment to hosting the prestigious events later in the year.<\/p>\n

Other\u00a0dignitaries\u00a0were\u00a0present at the meeting, including\u00a0the president\u00a0of the Nigeria Football Federation\u00a0(NFF) Ibrahim Musa Gusau, Special Adviser to the CAF President Amaju Melvin Pinnick, as well as many others.<\/p>\n

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CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe. Photo by Samuel Ameyaw Yeboah\/IMAGO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nigeria will also host the CAF Awards, which could become even more memorable if a Nigerian player wins one of the major honours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2025 edition, held in Morocco, saw\u00a0the hosts\u00a0dominate the top categories, with Achraf Hakimi winning the Men\u2019s Player of the Year award ahead of\u00a0Super Eagles\u2019 Victor\u00a0Osimhen, while Ghizlane Chebbak beat Rasheedat Ajibade to the Women\u2019s Player of the Year prize.<\/p>\n

Osimhen is expected to be among the frontrunners once again after an outstanding campaign with Galatasaray, where he helped the club secure\u00a0a fourth straight\u00a0Turkish Super Lig title. Super Eagles forward Ademola Lookman could also be in contention after another impressive season and a strong\u00a0campaign at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations tournament.<\/p>\n

Both players previously won the award in 2023 and 2024 respectively\u00a0and Nigeria will be eager to see one of its stars return to the\u00a0winners chart\u00a0after missing out last year.<\/p>\n

However, the Nigerian duo are expected to face\u00a0serious\u00a0competition from Moroccan stars Achraf Hakimi and Brahim Diaz, who both enjoyed strong campaigns for club and country.<\/p>\n

Diaz was named Player of the Tournament at the last AFCON, while Hakimi remains the current CAF Men\u2019s Player of the Year holder\u00a0and they are\u00a0expected to be among the leading contenders once again when the awards ceremony takes place in Nigeria later this year.<\/p>\n

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2025 CAF Awards winners: Morocco\u2019s Achraf Hakimi and Ghizlane Chebbak. Photo Credit: CAF X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, the upcoming Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) could play a\u00a0huge\u00a0role in deciding the women\u2019s categories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Super Falcons\u00a0will be aiming to defend the title they won after defeating Morocco 3-2 in the previous final\u00a0and another\u00a0successful campaign could see several Nigerian stars make the podium and potentially complete a clean sweep of the major awards for the country\u00a0at the event.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"<!--Ayomide Oguntimehin” src=”https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/thumbor\/ycGEJDr9VZlpO_5zujn3ZdvICxA=\/150×150\/smart\/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.soccernet.ng%2Fmain%2F2024%2F12%2FAyomide-Oguntimehin-pics.jpg” height=”80″ width=”80″>\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tAyomide Oguntimehin\t\t\t\t<\/a>
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\n\t\t\t\tAyomide Oguntimehin is a CAF-accredited sports journalist and Chief Editor at Soccernet.ng. He has interviewed Super Eagles stars like William Troost-Ekong, Taiwo Awoniyi, Bright Osayi-Samuel, and Ademola Lookman, and is known for breaking major transfer stories.<\/p>\n

Ayomide has worked with Sports Brief, Naija News and served as Social Lead Editor at Legit.ng. He has also featured on Goal, TVC News, Sports Mole, and Milan News24. He holds a Master\u2019s degree and is currently pursuing a PhD. Follow Ayomide on X (formerly Twitter): @ayo_oguntimehin\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>Ayomide Oguntimehin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soccer Asisat Oshoala and Victor Osimhen with CAF President Patrice Motsepe at the 2023 CAF awards [Photo credit\/X] Nigeria\u00a0will\u00a0welcome several high-profile visitors later this year following\u00a0the latest development from the Confederation of African Football (CAF),\u00a0Soccernet.ng\u00a0reports. The West African nation is set to host the 48th CAF Ordinary General Assembly as well as the CAF Awards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":905436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[780,115618,2005],"tags":[9796,115617],"class_list":{"0":"post-905435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-awards","8":"category-hakimi","9":"category-soccer","10":"tag-awards","11":"tag-hakimi"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}