Achraf Hakimi named African player of the year | OneFootball

Achraf Hakimi, right-back for Paris Saint-Germain and captain of the Moroccan national team, was named the Best African Player of 2025 this Wednesday, at a ceremony held in Rabat.

The 27-year-old player, who won the Champions League and the French Championship titles with PSG this year, receives this prestigious individual award for the first time, granted by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

“It is truly an honor to be here today. I am proud to win such a prestigious trophy,” declared the right-back.

Hakimi, who placed sixth in the Ballon d'Or voting by France Football magazine last September (an award won by his PSG teammate Ousmane Dembélé), surpassed Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), who was named the best on the continent in 2017 and 2018, and Nigerian forward Victor Osimhen (Galatasaray), winner in 2023.

Last year, the award went to Nigerian Ademola Lookman, from Atalanta. Hakimi had been among the finalists in 2023 and 2024.

Last May, the Moroccan right-back had already received the Marc-Vivien Foé Award, which recognizes the best African player of the French Ligue 1 season.

Currently sidelined due to an ankle sprain, Hakimi is confident he will be fully recovered to lead the Moroccan national team in the African Cup of Nations (CAN), which begins on December 21.

Moroccan Dominance

Morocco also played an important role in the CAF awards ceremony, partly thanks to Ghizlane Chebbak's victory as the best female footballer on the continent, surpassing her compatriot Sanaa Mssoudy and Nigerian Rasheedat Ajibade.

Chebbak, 25, plays for Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia and was the top scorer of the Women's African Cup of Nations, in which the Moroccan team lost the final to Nigeria.

Another Moroccan honored was Yassine Bonou (Al Hilal), who won the award for best African goalkeeper of the year.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.