Salah, Mane, and Mendy make the final shortlist for the CAF 2022 award

The key parts of the successful

team that went on to lift the AFCON trophy in Cameroon, Sadio Mane and Edouard Mendy will compete Mane’s former Liverpool teammate,

, for the CAF Awards’ Men's Player of the Year as the

the final shortlist. The award was canceled for the last three years due to the COVID-10 pandemic as Mane won the last AFCON Player of the Year award in 2019 ahead of Salah and Mahrez.

Zambia's Grace Chanda, Cameroon Ajara Nchout Njoya, and Barcelona's Nigerian player Asisat Oshoala are the final three for the Women's Player of the Year award. The winners of both awards will be announced on Thursday.

Scoring 23 goals in 51 games for Liverpool in his final season at Anfield before leaving for Bayern Munich this summer,

also won the EFL Cup and FA Cup and reached the Champions League final along with Mohamed Salah with the Reds. Meanwhile, Salah scored 31 goals in 51 games for Jurgen Klopp's men and reached the final of the AFCON, where he ended on the losing side.

Chelsea's

kept 22 clean sheets in 49 games in all competitions in 2021-22. Although Chelsea's season wasn't as much of a success as Liverpool's, the Senegalese lifted the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup with the Blues last season.

Naby Keita, Kalidou Koulibaly, Riyad Mahrez, Vincent Aboubakar, Karl Toko Ekambi, Achraf Hakimi, and Sebastien Haller were the seven players to miss out from the 10-man longlist released last week.

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