TheCable

Victor Osimhen has won the Italian Footballers’ Association (AIC) Player of the Year award for the 2022/23 Serie A season.

The 24-year-old Nigerian won the prize at the Gran Gala del Calcio held in Milan on Monday evening.

The award was organised by AIC, which is the organisation that protects and assists professional footballers across Serie A, B, Lega Pro and women’s football.

Osimhen was also named in the Serie A best 11 for the 2022/23 season.

Other players in the team of the year include Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Alessandro Bastoni, Kim Min Jae and Stanislav Lobotska.

The rest are Hakan Calhanoglu, Nicolo Barella, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Rafa Leao.

Osimhen led Napoli to the Serie A title last season — the club’s first in 33 years.

The Super Eagles striker scored 25 league goals to become the league’s highest goalscorer, setting the record as the first African footballer to achieve the feat.

He was named the eighth-best male footballer in the world at the 2023 Ballon d’Or ceremony. The Nigerian finished higher than any other Africans on the list.

Osimhen also became the first Nigerian to be named in the top ten of the Ballon d’Or.

He also made the final shortlist for the 2023 CAF footballer of the year prize.