Five African sports personalities – Nigerian footballer Asisat Oshoala, Botswana athlete Nijel Amos, South African duo Pieter-Steph du Toit and Lloyd Harris, and Ghanaian car racer Lewis Appiagye – have been named on the 2020 Forbes Africa 30 Under-30 list., external
The list is an annual compilation of the “continent’s revolutionary thinkers revitalising ideas and industries with fresh business models and innovative leadership”, who are all under the age of 30.
The five are all making their first appearance on a list that includes entertainers, innovators and business executives.
Following an unexpectedly solid 2019 Women’s World Cup campaign for African teams, Asisat Oshoala, 25, picked up the Caf Women’s Footballer of the Year for the fourth time.
In the same year, she became the first player to score for FC Barcelona Femenà at the Uefa Women’s Champions League final – thus becoming the first African woman to score in a Champions League final. Barcelona lost 4-1 to eventual champions PSG.
In an unforgettable year for South African rugby, Pieter-Steph du Toit, 27, was awarded the 2019 Men’s World Rugby Player of the Year and South Africa Rugby Player of the Year following the Springboks’ 2019 Rugby World Cup title.
The rugby superstar plays as a lock or flanker for the Stormers in the Super Rugby club competition.
At just 18, Botswana’s Nijel Amos won his country’s first and only Olympic medal; a London 2012 silver medal in 800m and a podium finish behind 800m world record creator, David Rudisha of Kenya.
With injuries depriving him of more successes on the track, the joint-third fastest man of all-time, now 26, clocked last season’s fastest time in 800m.
He has qualified for the 2020 Olympics while effectively combining sports and running his ‘Chase the Dream’ foundation, which caters to the youth empowerment of ex-convicts.
As a 10-year-old, Lewis Appiagyei set the unbeaten Guinness World record for the fastest lap driven on the Laguna Seca Circuit in virtual racing on PlayStation3.
From Go-Kart Champion to winning a junior trophy at the Buckmore Park Kart Circuit where Formula One great Lewis Hamilton also honed his craft, Appiagyei – at just 16 – has set his sight on something more daring.
“My aim is to become Africa’s first Formula One world champion, a prize which is still up for grabs to all African racing drivers wherever they may be,” he told Forbes Africa.
Meanwhile, Harris is currently South Africa’s second-ranked tennis player behind Kevin Anderson.
Aged 23, he is nicknamed ‘The King’ within South Africa’s Davis Cup team.