New African Soccer Awards have announced West Ham United’s Senegalese striker Diafra Sakho as the English Premier League African Player of the Month for October.



Sakho, 24, who had been in the final shortlist for the previous two months running, staved off challenges of fellow Hammer Alex Song and Swansea City’s Wilfried Bony to win the award.

Sakho has been in excellent form for his club since arriving in England from Metz in France, striking a good partnership with record signing Enner Valencia. In the last weekend of October, Sakho entered West Ham record books, equalling Mick Quinn’s record of scoring six in six Premier league games in a row for West Ham. This he achieved in scoring what turned out to be the winner against champions Manchester City in the 2-1 triumph at Upton Park.

Awards Director and CEO of New African Soccer Tunde Adelakun said “Sakho is well worth this award, and it was great to see the overwhelming support and endorsement he got from our social media followers. We believe that this Award will spur him to continue doing what he is doing”.

Commenting on the impact of the Awards on the players, Adelakun said “We believe that this Award will spur Diafra into continuing to do what he is doing, just as we saw the impact it has had on previous winners Mame Biram Diouf and Victor Wanyama who can’t seem to stop scoring these days”, he concluded.

The Award will be presented to Sakho in the coming days.