FOR THE SECOND year running, Egypt's Mohamed Salah has been named the African Player of the Year. The news came on the heels of the announcement that Egypt will host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (ACN), making it a double celebration for Egyptians on one day. Liverpool star Salah received the award for his 2018 exploits at a gala ceremony in Senegal on Tuesday. For the second consecutive year he was competing against fellow English Premier League stars, Liverpool team-mate Sadio Mane from Senegal and Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal. Salah was also selected to the all-star African team. Earlier on Tuesday and also in Dakar, Egypt beat South Africa, the only other nation to bid for the ACN, by 16 votes to one with one abstention at a CAF Executive Committee vote. Original host nation Cameroon was stripped of staging the tournament late last year because of inadequate preparations. The tournament will be expanded from 16 to 24 teams and will kick off in June instead of its usual January-February time slot to avoid club-versus-country clashes. It will be the fifth time Egypt, which won the tournament when it last hosted it in 2006, has staged the championship.