Football fans will have the chance to cast their votes and take part in the selection process for CAF's Player of the Year award for the first time, the African governing body announced on Saturday. The African supporters will choose between Egypt's Mohamed Salah, Gabon's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Senegal's Sadio Mane for the 2017 award. "For the African Player of the Year, the public can vote via the CAF website for their preferred choice amongst the top three contenders," CAF said in a statement. "The outcome will be tallied with the results from the two earlier phases of the selection process. "Details of the votes will be made public at the Aiteo CAF awards Gala 2017 on Thursday, 4 January 2018 in Accra, Ghana." The winner used to be only decided by votes from the head coaches/technical directors of the national teams affiliated to CAF, members of the CAF Technical and Development Committee and a panel of media experts. Liverpool's red-hot winger Salah is favourite to land the award and become only the second Egyptian to win it after Ahly's iconic forward Mahmoud El-Khatib, who was named Africa's best player by France Football magazine in 1983. Salah is the current top goal-scorer of the English Premier League with 15 goals, three ahead of Tottenham striker Harry Kane. He was named the BBC's African Player of the Year earlier this month. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
