Abroad: Ekambi bags award for top African player in Ligue 1

Cameroon and Angers forward, Karl Toko Ekambi, became the tenth recipient of the Marc-Vivien Foe Award for the best African player in France’s top flight league. Ekambi beat Tunisian Wahbi Khazri who plays for Rennes and Lyon’s summer acquisition, Bertrand Traore (Burkina Faso) to the award. The 25-year-old France born forward scored occupies the eighth place on the Ligue 1 scoring charts after finding the back of the net 17 times for 14th placed Angers FC in the 2017/18 Ligue 1 campaign. Ekambi was also quick to pay tribute to his counterparts he beat to the award:

"I'm proud to have won this title in front of players who play in big clubs in Ligue 1. I know them especially for playing against them. I do not know them personally. But I know that Bertrand Traore played in big clubs. He is young enough but he already has a good record and a lot of great clubs under his belt. And Wahbi Khazri is a major player in the French Championship. It's a big season too." - Karl Toko Ekambi, Cameroon and Angers FC

Ekambi became the first Indomitable Lions player to win the award dedicated to his compatriot, Marc-Vivien Foe who died on the field of play in 2003. He was also part of the Cameroon squad that won the 2017 AFCON title in Gabon and has been in Angers books since 2016 after joining them from Sochaux.

Here is the list of previous winners of the Marc-Vivien Foe Award:

2017: Jean Michael Seri (Ivory Coast, Nice)

2016: Sofiane Boufal (Morocco/Lille)

2015: Andre Ayew (Ghana/Marseille)

2014: Vincent Enyeama (Nigeria/Lille)

2013: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon/Saint-Étienne)

2012: Younès Belhanda (Morocco/Montpellier)

2011: Gervinho (Ivory Coast/Lille)

2010: Gervinho (Ivory Coast/Lille)

2009: Marouane Chamakh (Morocco/Bordeaux)