2026 CAF Awards: Date, Venue, Nominees & Everything to Know

Achraf Hakimi with his trophy after winning African Player of the Year at the 2025 CAF Awards. Photo Credit: CAF/Instagram

For the first time in 12 years, Lagos will host the CAF Awards, with the 2026 ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, 2 December. The event, which was originally set for 7 December, will bring together leading African footballers, coaches and teams at the Professor Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Arts in Iganmu.

Spanning 18 award categories across men’s and women’s football, the 2026 CAF Awards will celebrate the finest players, coaches, national teams, and clubs across the continent while bringing football royalty, Nollywood stars, Afrobeats performers, and fashion insiders together on one red carpet.

The 2026 shortlists come with a notable twist for the host nation. No Nigerian player made the ten-man shortlist for the CAF Men’s Player of the Year award—leaving out Super Eagles stars Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman alongside Egypt’s Mohamed Salah—and no Nigerian footballer features in the CAF Women’s Player of the Year category either, with three-time Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year winner Chiamaka Nnadozie also absent from the final lists.

Chiamaka Nnadozie celebrating her third consecutive Goalkeeper of the Year win at the 2025 CAF Awards. Photo Credit: Chiamaka Nnadozie/Instagram

Even so, Nigeria still has four nominations to look forward to on home soil on 2 December. The Super Falcons are nominated for Women’s National Team of the Year alongside Algeria, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, and South Africa. In the individual women’s categories, Edo Queens and Falconets shot-stopper Christiana Uzoma represents Nigeria on the Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year shortlist, while Nigerian youth internationals Seimeyeha Janet Akekoromowei and Oluwakemi Adegbuyi are both in the running for Women’s Young Player of the Year.

Elsewhere, the headline races feature some of the biggest names in global football. Defending winner Achraf Hakimi of Morocco and Paris Saint-Germain leads the CAF Men’s Player of the Year nominees alongside his compatriots Brahim Diaz and Ismael Saibari, Senegal’s Sadio Mané, Ismaila Sarr, and Pape Gueye, Côte d’Ivoire’s Amad Diallo, Ghana’s Antoine Semenyo, DR Congo’s Yoane Wissa, and South Africa’s Teboho Mokoena.

Ademola Lookman celebrating his Men’s Player of the Year victory at the 2024 CAF Awards. Photo Credit: Ademola Lookman/Instagram

Over in the CAF Women’s Player of the Year race, Zambia’s Barbra Banda and Malawi’s Tabitha and Temwa Chawinga headline a competitive ten-player shortlist that also includes South Africa’s Thembi Kgatlana, Ghana’s Portia Boakye, Algeria’s Marine Dafeur, Morocco’s Hanan Ait El Haj, and Cameroon trio Marie Ngah Manga, Michaely Bihina, and Monique Ngock. Other major honours on the night include Men’s and Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year, Interclub Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Young Player of the Year, National Team of the Year, and Club of the Year.

With voting running from 5 November to 20 November 2026, all roads lead to the Professor Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Arts in Lagos on Wednesday, 2 December, where African football’s biggest names will gather for a night of sport, music, and celebration.

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Photo Credit: Funke Akindele/Instagram

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