With the 2024 coming to a close after unprecedented levels of sporting action and excellence, Afrosport nominates its Male Athlete of the Year from the Nigerian, African and global category.
Nigerian: Ademola Lookman
The 2023-24 season was written in the stars for Lookman after he helped Atalanta win their first European title by scoring a first half hat-trick against a Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final, ending the German side’s competitive unbeaten run in all competitions
Lookman became a global star from that moment with his skill and craft continually improving.
His wonderful year, that included reaching the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations final, ended with being crowned the 2024 African Player of the Year.
He also ended the year as the player with most goal involvements in the Italian Serie A in 2024 with 13 goals and nine assists.
African: Letsile Tebogo
Tebogo was primed for greatness as he put in fast times in the men’s 100 metres and 200 metres going into the Paris 2024 Olympics.
His major challenger was American Noah Lyles and while the latter was vicious in the men’s 100 metres in Paris, Tebogo owned the track in the 200 metres to claim the gold medal.
It was the first Olympic gold medal for Botswana and also the first gold medal by an African in a sprint, an anomaly for a continent that is known to only dominate in the long distance categories.
Tebogo was named World Athletics Male Athlete of the Year and Male Track Athlete of the Year to cap off an astonishing year.
Global: Oleksandr Usyk
The highlight of the boxing calendar was the heavyweight fight between Usyk and Tyson Fury.
The first bout in Riyadh was not expected to be a one-way show owing to the fearsomeness of both boxers. It lived up to that billing but Usyk came out on top by a split decision.
The rematch was set for December and Usyk still held the edge this time by unanimous decision.
Fury was outraged by the outcome but the judges had the final say and it meant Usyk held on to the WBA, WBC and WBO titles as undisputed world heavyweight champion, cementing his place as one of the boxing greats.
