Whether it is an established European star or a player making a name for themselves in Africa, the Africa Cup of Nations has featured a range of talents who have stolen a tournament's spotlight throughout its history.
There will be plenty of different candidates to do so this time too, including Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez or even Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace.
But with shocks in store and unearthed gems yet to be discovered, it could just as easily be a player unrecognisable to European shores, let alone the Premier League as Sportsmail looks back at all the previous player of the tournament winners, starting from 1998 when AFCON first featured 16 teams.