How Kudus Can Win African Player Of The Year Award –EPL Star

Michail Antonio has said Mohammed Kudus and Ghana must “do more” for his West Ham United teammate to become African Footballer of the Year.

Speaking on Joy News [via Ghana SoccerNet, 15 November], Antonio has assessed Kudus’ chances of winning the accolade before Ghana officially failed to qualify for the AFCON 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.

“With Mo’s talent, there’s a 100% chance that he can win,” he said. “Obviously, there are some great potentials there. There’s [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang, Mo Salah, [Sadio] Mane, and there’s definitely Kudus – I believe he has the talent to do it.”

“It’s just he needs the surroundings of his team to help him to do it, and right now, Ghana aren’t at that quality. Ghana has a quality history, but right now, they’re not doing as well as they feel like they should be doing.

“For him to achieve the award, I feel he and Ghana, as a team, have to do more for that to happen.”

Kudus was in action for Ghana in their must-win clash against Angola [15 November] in their AFCON qualifying match.

He played the full game as Ghana played 1-1 draw, meaning they will not feature at the 2025 tournament hosted in Morocco.

The qualifiers have been dismal for the Black Stars, without a win from five games which renders their match against Niger on 18 November redundant from their perspective, having appeared at the last 10 tournaments.

At the 2021 and 2023 AFCON tournaments the Black Stars crashed out in the group stages.