Liverpool superstar Sadio Mane has overcome his Reds teammate Mo'Salah and AFCON winner Riyad Mahrez to be named as Africa's Footballer of the Year for 2019.
He deserves it but his best is yet to come.
Neither one of Mohamed Salah or Riyad Mahrez was in attendance in Cairo to see Mane crowned as the King of Africa over the past 12 months, with Manchester City's Mahrez in action in a Carabao Cup semi-final and Salah pictured back in training at Liverpool.
Egyptian icon Salah won the award in each of the last two years, but 2019 saw Mane's emergence to Liverpool grow to a level that equaled and often surpassed his teammate.
Given Liverpool's rise in the world most loved game, and a start to the 2019/20 season which has seen them installed as overwhelming favorites to lift their first league title since 1990, Mane is creating history with his current club and should have no reason to move on.
Mane has always been more tactically disciplined, more prepared to sacrifice himself for the team and more willing to do things that others aren't. He's become the perfect player in this near-perfect Liverpool season.
Off the ball he has dialed-in to Klopp's counter-pressing system as well as anyone, giving opposition players no peace once Liverpool turns the ball over, helping the side become as dangerous without the ball as it is with it.
The Senegal forward's 22 Premier League goals in the 2018/19 season led to him sharing the Golden Boot with Salah and Arsenal star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He has scored 15 goals so far in 2019-20, with Liverpool 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League table.
After playing an important part in Champions League, Mane then netted a brace as Liverpool beat Chelsea in the UEFA Super Cup final at the beginning of this season, and both played their part as Klopp's men lifted the Club World Cup in Qatar last month with a 1-0 victory over Flamengo in the final.
Mane's Senegal side finished runners-up in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, after which he was named in the Team of the Tournament. He's always been extremely keen to make his fans in his home country happy and never forgets where he came from.
Ballon d'Or in sight
Mane finished above Salah in the Ballon d'Or rankings this year, and there was no-one who was getting in his way when it came to 2019's African Footballer of the Year Award. Quite literally.
If he's good enough for Lionel Messi in 2019 then he's good enough for the rest of us.
Mane was the great Barcelona icon's pick for the Ballon d'Or that Messi himself won in 2019.
If Mane is able to be a part of Liverpool’s first league title win in 30 years it would trump any individual award, but being part of such an achievement should see the personal awards continue to flow for the Senegalese and his team-mates.
There is a real possibility that one of these players could succeed Messi as the world's best football player, and Mane is in pole position to do so.
Now, the next target will surely be the Ballon d'Or prize.
