Egyptian star Mohammed Salah is competing for the BBC's award after announcing the five candidates to win the title of African Player of the Year.
The Egyptian star won the title last year, after an unprecedented season with the "Ridds" crowned the title of the best player in the English Premier League and the Premier League, and led his team to the final of the Champions League.
The first candidate for the award this year is Moroccan star Mehdi Ben Attia, 31, after winning the league with Juventus last season and leading Morocco to the World Cup.
The second winner is defending champion Mohammed Salah, 26, scored 32 goals in the Premier League last season and 10 in the Champions League.
The third is Caldido Coulibaly, Napoli's 27-year-old defender, fourth-ranked Saadeo Mani, 26, and Liverpool's Thomas Barty, 25, of Atletico Madrid.
The award was launched in 1992 and Ghanaian Obeidi Pele was the first player to win the title when he was a Marseille player.
The Arabs won the award 5 times earlier, the first was the Egyptian Mohamed Barakat, followed by his colleague Mohammed Abu Trika, before the Algerians Yassin Brahimi and Riyadh Mehrez won the title in 2014 and 2016 before Salah won by last year.
Although the award for the best African player of the year from the point of view of the BBC listeners, but Zambia was crowned in 1994 after the disaster of the plane crash in 1993.
