SHARE

While Leicester City might be struggling in the Premier League after last season’s glories, their first ever Champions League run has gotten off to a good start.

This has partly been down to the complicity between Riyad Mahrez and Islam Slimani, who both started on the bench against Chelsea on Saturday, as Claudio Ranieri started thinking ahead to Tuesday’s clash against FC Copenhagen.

Starting the game, however, was Ahmed Musa, who is yet to score for his new club since his £16.5m transfer from CSKA Moscow this summer, but the Nigerian striker only played 67 minutes as Leicester ended up losing 3-0.

All three players, however, will be have been able to rejoice to a certain extent over the weekend as the Confederation of African Football released their 30-man shortlist for the African Player of the Year award on Saturday.

The Leicester trio were all nominated for the award, making the Premier League champions the club with the most players on the list ahead of Mamelodi Sundowns, who have two.

The award’s outcome has normally been revealed sometime in early January, meaning we’ll have to wait until then to see if Mahrez, who has to be a favourite to win it, Slimani or Musa will join the prestigious list of winners that include Yaya Touré, Didier Drogba or Samuel Eto’o.