Real Madrid star snubbed from CAF awards despite previously being labelled as a favourite

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has officially announced the final list of candidates who are in contention to win the prestigious Golden Ball award.

The Golden Ball is given to the best-performing African footballer of the year. In the past, the award has been won by established stars such as Mohamed Salah, Samuel Eto’o and Yaya Toure, among others.

Interestingly, not even a single Real Madrid player has won the prestigious award in its history.

But that was expected to change when it was reported that Brahim Diaz would be a favourite to win this year’s Golden Ball award.

Brahim Diaz fails to qualify for CAF Golden Ball

However, in a dramatic turnaround, Brahim Diaz is missing from the final list of candidates announced by the CAF.

This essentially means Diaz is not even considered among the top ten performers in Africa this past year.

Instead of Brahim, CAF has selected some interesting names, including South African star Ronwen Williams and Morocco’s Soufiane Rahimi.

Former Real Madrid youth prodigy Achraf Hakimi has been selected as a candidate. However, one would imagine Serhou Guirassy to be the favourite.

The Borussia Dortmund striker bagged as many as 28 goals for Stuttgart last season, helping the club secure second place in the Bundesliga.

Guirassy was a goalscorer for Dortmund even in the recent tie against Real Madrid, though Los Blancos staged an excellent comeback to secure a 5-2 victory.

As for Brahim, not being selected for CAF awards will certainly be a setback. But the playmaker will look to recover from it quickly and try to play a key role for Los Blancos as they gear up for a tough set of fixtures.