Football
Dami Ugbane, Special to ESPN 7y

Olarenwaju Kayode voted player of season in Austria

Austria Wien and Nigeria forward Olarenwaju Kayode has been voted Austria Bundesliga player of the year for the 2016/17 season.

The 24-year-old forward, who signed for the capital club unheralded in 2015 from Israeli club Maccabi Netanya, ended as the league's top scorer with 17 goals.

His club finished second behind champions Red Bull Salzburg, thus bagging a UEFA Europa League ticket.

Kayode missed his club's final game of the season at the weekend, a comprehensive 6-1 away thumping of Admira, due to yellow cards accumulated.

The exciting forward will hope to follow in the footsteps of fellow West African internationals Sadio Mane and Naby Keita, both of whom represented Red Bull Salzburg in the past, and were standout players in the league before their eventual departures.

Mane secured a move from Salzburg to Southampton in 2014, before completing an African record transfer of £34 million to Liverpool last summer from the Saints.

Keita moved to RB Leipzig last summer and is the subject of major transfer speculation from Europe's heavyweight clubs.

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