Chipolopolo striker Patson Daka has made the final three-member shortlist for the 2017 Best Young Player of the Year award.
However, the Zambia Under-20 team failed to make the final cut for the team of the Year that will be contested by Egypt, Nigeria and African champions Cameroon.
Daka has kept alive Zambia’s quest for honours at next month’s 2017 CAF Awards Gala that will be handed out on January 4 in Accra, Ghana.
The striker from Austrian club FC Liefering has competition from Krepin Diatta of Senegal and Salam Giddou from Mali.
Daka led the Zambia Under-20 to victory in the 2017 U20 AFCON final on home soil in March with four goals and his other two goals at the 2018 FIFA U20 World Cup in South Korea helped the team to reach their debut quarterfinal in June.
He is expecting to match Clifford Mulenga who was the last winner of the award from Zambia in 2007.
Meanwhile, there will be no CAF Referee of the Year and African-based Player Award that has been scraped by CAF at the last minute.
West and Francophone Africa at work.
What criteria waa used for Nigeria and Egypt to remain and also why in the first place did they include Zambia U20? This is rubbish and you dare omit Daka for the prize to me African football is dead, the boy is UEFA youth champion, COSAFA U20 Champion, AFCON U20 Champion and World Cup U20 Quarter finalist. CAF should behave and be transparency for the sake of developing football. I thank you.