Foot: Chancel Mbemba won the Marc-Vivien Foé Award
Olympique de Marseille’s Congolese player, Chancel Mbemba, won the Marc-Vivien Foé Award on Tuesday, presented by France 24 and RFI, for the best African player in the French Ligue 1 season. It is a great achievement for the Marseille defender.
He surpassed the Ivorian Seko Fofana, the previous titleholder, and the Nigerian Terem Moffi in the rankings.
This is the first time a defender has topped the votes since the creation of the Marc-Vivien Foé Award.
With a slight lead, Marseille’s Chancel Mbemba (207 points) was chosen by a jury of about a hundred participants to claim the top spot ahead of Seko Fofana from Ivory Coast (Lens).
Only 11 points separate the two players. The Nigerian Terem Moffi, who plays for Nice, completes the top three with 125 points, while the jury had eleven names to choose from. This season, Ligue 1 featured more than a hundred African players.
Chancel Mbemba is the second Congolese player to receive this award after Gaël Kakuta in 2021. The former Porto defender joined Marseille on July 15, 2022, as a free agent for a three-year contract.
Before playing in France for the first time, the Kinshasa native had experience in Belgian, English, and Portuguese leagues. Prior to Mbemba, another player from Marseille, Ghanaian André Ayew, received this award in 2015.
MARC VIVIEN FOÉ AWARD: What do we need to know about it?
The Marc-Vivien Foé Award honors the African player who has excelled the most in the French first division championship (Ligue 1) during the 2022-2023 season.
Eligible players are those who represented an African national team in Ligue 1 and have not changed their sporting nationality to a non-African country. The winner was chosen through a vote organized by Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24 among a panel of specialized journalists, consultants, and football personalities.
SITOU.
