Super Eagles player, Victor Osimhen has won the 2020 Marc Vivien Foe prize for the Best African Player in French Ligue 1, 2019-2020 season.
Osimhen emerged top of the eleven man list of African footballers who were shortlisted for the award named after Cameroonian great and former Olympique Lyonnais midfielder, Marc Vivien Foe.
22-year-old Osimhen garnered 284 points to beat his African colleagues; Moses Simon (Nantes), Islam Slimani (Monaco), Denis Bouanga (Saint-Etienne), Yunis Abdelhamid (Stade de Reims), Idrissa Gueye (PSG), Habib Diallo (FC Metz) plus Stade Rennais’ trio of Mbaye Niang, Hamari Traore and Edouard Mendy.
He is the second Lille player and also second Nigerian to win the Award after Vincent Enyeama, who also won it at the club in 2014.
The jury unveiled the voting results as follows;
1. Victor OSIMHEN (Nigeria/Lille LOSC) – 284 points
2. Islam SLIMANI (Algérie/AS Monaco) – 95 points
3. Yunis ABDELHAMID (Maroc/Stade de Reims) – 89 points
4. Habib DIALLO (Senegal/FC Metz) – 52 points
5. M’Baye NIANG (Senegal/Stade rennais) – 43 points
6. Idrissa GUEYE (Senegal/Paris SG) – 37 points
* Hamari TRAORÉ (Mali/Stade Rennais) – 37 points
8. Denis BOUANGA (Gabon/AS Saint-Etienne) – 27 points
9. Edouard MENDY (Senegal/Stade rennais) – 24 points
10. Andy DELORT (Algeria/Montpellier HSC) – 13 points
11. Moses SIMON (Nigeria/FC Nantes) – 10 points
Lille signed Osimhen in July 2019 from Royal Charleroi Sporting Club.
Osimhen netted 18 goals in 38 matches across all competitions before the French Ligue 1 was abruptly brought to an end due to Covid-19 pandemic.
🏆⚽️🇳🇬 Lille’s (@losclive) Nigerian forward Victor OSIMHEN won the Marc-Vivien Foé @RFI @France24_fr Prize for best African player in the French Ligue 1, the French football championship for the 2019-2020 season. Congratulations @victorosimhen9 ! 👏 pic.twitter.com/gcgrctVFxI — RFI – Relations Presse (@RFI_Presse) June 29, 2020
Moses Simon has also taken to Twitter to congratulate Victor Osimhen.
