Today, Monday, 3 of the best African football stars are competing for the African Golden Ball award, including 2 Arabs: the Egyptian Mohamed Salah, the Liverpool star, the Moroccan Ashraf Hakimi, the Paris Saint-Germain star, next to the Nigerian Victor Osimhen, the Napoli star. The award for the best player in Africa for the year 2023 is awarded based on the performance of this trio with their clubs and national teams during the period from November 2022 until September 2023. If Mohamed Salah or Hakimi receives the award, this will be the 12th time in the history of the Arabs that they have received the award, as there is Morocco is at the top of the ranking of the Arab countries that have won the award the most, with a score of 4 times, one award ahead of Egypt and Algeria, while Tunisia won the award once. Egyptian star Mohamed Salah, Liverpool player, holds the record as he is the only Arab player to win the African Ballon d'Or twice, in 2017 and 2018.
The “Tembeh” website monitors the Arab players who won the title:
Ahmed Fares - Morocco 1975
Tariq Dhiab - Tunisia 1977
Mahmoud Al Khatib - Egypt 1981
Lakhdar Belloumi - Algeria 1983
Mohamed Taymoumi - Morocco 1985
Badou El Zaki - Morocco 1986
Rabah Madjer - Algeria 1987
Mustafa Haji - Morocco 1998
Riyad Mahrez - Algeria 2016
Mohamed Salah - Egypt 2017 and 2018