Mohamed Salah (Egypt) – Football
At 32, Egypt’s favourite son Mohamed Salah is somehow still getting better. His numbers with Liverpool this season have shattered records, with the “Egyptian King” showing zero signs of slowing down.
Salah has been involved in 30 goals in just 18 Premier League games so far this campaign (17 goals, 13 assists). No one has ever reached 30 goal involvements in fewer appearances in a single Premier League season.
Also this term, he has both scored and assisted in eight different Premier League games. That’s more than any player has tallied in an entire Premier League campaign.
The Liverpool winger netted his 20th goal of the season against West Ham United on Sunday, to extend the Reds’ lead at the top of the table.
And 2025 will be an interesting year for Salah, who is chasing a second Premier League title with Liverpool, a contract renewal, a maiden Ballon d’Or, and a first Africa Cup of Nations crown with Egypt.
Omar Marmoush (Egypt) – Football
If Salah’s numbers are the best among all players in the top five leagues, Omar Marmoush is not far behind.
The Eintracht Frankfurt forward has become arguably the hottest commodity in the Bundesliga this season, scoring 13 goals and providing seven assists in just 15 league games.
Overall, he has clocked up 18 goals and 12 assists in 24 appearances across competitions this campaign entering the New Year, and several clubs are in a race to sign him, with Arsenal rumoured to be on top of that list.
The 25-year-old striker has a big 2025 ahead of him, during which he will also be vying for silverware with Egypt at the Afcon.
Ahmed Jaouadi (Tunisia) – Swimming
Oussama Mellouli, Ahmed Hafnaoui, and now Ahmed Jaouadi – Tunisia’s pipeline of gifted distance swimmers has produced yet another world champion.
Jaouadi, 19, gave an indication of what he is capable of at the Paris Olympics last summer when he placed ninth in the 400m freestyle heat, just missing out on a place in the final by a mere 0.39s.
He did even better in the longer distances.
Jaouadi made the final of the 800m free in Paris, missing the podium by just one spot, and also qualified for the final in the 1,500m free, placing sixth with a new personal best time of 14:43.35.
His 800m free and 1,500m free results at the Olympics rank him amongst the top 20 performers of all time in those events.
The Tunisian didn’t stop there. He finished his year by competing in the World Short Course Championships in Budapest in December, where he secured the gold medal in the 1,500m free with a massive new PB of 14:16.40 (lowering his previous mark by eight seconds).
He took bronze in the 800m free, shattering the African record in the process, and walking away from Worlds with two medals.
Jaouadi will be one to watch at the long-course World Aquatics Championships in Singapore this summer, where he will look to replicate his success from the 25m pool to the 50m one.
Hady Habib (Lebanon) – Tennis
A few weeks ago, at a tournament in Chile, Hady Habib made history as the first Lebanese player to win a title on the ATP Challenger tour.
That triumph didn’t just earn him a historic trophy, it also helped him rocket up the rankings by over 100 spots to secure a place in the qualifying draw of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
The Texas-born Lebanese, who competed at the Paris Olympics and took on a red-hot Carlos Alcaraz in his singles opener there, is now all set to make his major debut at the Australian Open this month and says qualifying for a Grand Slam main draw is on top of his bucket list for 2025.
“I do set goals, I think it’s really important for me to have a plan, something me and my team have worked on. I think if you have a dream, that’s great, but if you don’t have a plan, you don’t have a way of getting there,” the 26-year-old recently told The National.
“For 2025, my goal is to compete in all the Grand Slams and another big goal of mine is to qualify for the main draw of a Slam. I think that would be another milestone and an incredible goal to achieve, that’s what’s next.”
Djamel Sedjati (Algeria) – Athletics
In the build-up to the Paris Olympics, Djamel Sedjati ran the third and fourth-fastest 800m of all time, going 1:41.56 in the Diamond League stop in Paris, and then lowering his personal best to 1:41.46 five days later in Monaco.
He openly stated he had his sights set on breaking David Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91 in the event, which has stood since 2012, and was in a fierce competition with Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Canada’s Marco Arop heading into the Olympics.
Sedjati ended up taking 800m bronze in at the Paris Games behind Wanyonyi and Arop, in what was the fastest Olympic final in history. The trio, along with France’s Gabriel Tual and USA’s Bryce Hoppel, have continued to push each other for the rest of the year.
With the athletics season set to hit its climax at the World Championships in Tokyo in September, it’s hard to imagine the 800m world record will remain untouched much longer. Will it be Sedjati who finally does it? The 25-year-old Algerian has certainly made a strong case for himself.
Mohammed Alakel (Saudi Arabia) – Boxing
The next 12 months should reveal whether “Mighty” Mohammed Alakel has the talent to emerge as the home-grown champion the Saudis are searching for.
Since the kingdom became the home of big fights, we have seen a number of local fighters crop up on the undercards – including the 20-year-old lightweight Alakel.
The Riyadh native is currently 2-0 and has shown some promise in picking up those wins, including most recently over Joshua Ocampo on the undercard of December's Usyk v Fury 2 show.
He is coached by former Ring Magazine trainer of the year Joe Gallagher, who has been recruited to oversee the boxing programme at the Mike Tyson Gym in Riyadh.
Gallagher is working alongside several top British coaches – including former world light-middleweight title challenger Brian Rose – as Saudi Arabia looks to develop home-grown champions to grace the lavish cards they now regularly host in the winter months.
The key for Alakel is activity, and Gallagher will hope to have him out as often as possible in 2025. With the backing of Riyadh Season, he will have every chance to make a name for himself.
Eliesse Ben Seghir (Morocco) – Football
Moroccan teenager Eliesse Ben Seghir is the latest exciting young talent to emerge from Monaco, a club whose academy has produced Thierry Henry and Kylian Mbappe.
Born in south-eastern France to Moroccan parents, Ben Seghir joined the Monaco Academy at 15, and signed his first professional contract two years later. He made his first-team debut at 17, scoring a brace on his first Ligue 1 outing.
He represented France at youth level but switched allegiance to Morocco and helped the U23 Atlas Lions secure bronze at the Paris Olympics last summer.
The 19-year-old winger has become a regular fixture in Morocco’s first team (has scored three goals in six appearances under coach Walid Regragui) and will be one to watch at the Africa Cup of Nations, which will be hosted by Morocco from December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026.
He has contributed seven goals and four assists for Monaco across competitions so far this season and there is, understandably, lots of buzz around him in the transfer market.
Rashid Al Dhaheri (UAE) – Motorsport
After another year behind the wheel, competing in Italian F4, Euro 4, and F4 UAE with Prema Racing, 16-year-old Emirati Rashid Al Dhaheri is now ready to take the next step in his young career by moving up to the Formula Regional European Championship in 2025.
Al Dhaheri claimed two race wins and five podiums to finish fourth in the F4 UAE Championship in 2024, and placed 10th and 11th respectively in the Italian F4 and Euro 4 Championships.
He also took two wins and four podiums with Mumbai Falcons Racing in the Formula Trophy UAE series.
“My focus has to be on my move up to Formula Regional, which will present new challenges and opportunities,” he recently told The National.
“It is great that I will continue with Prema Racing, the team I have been with from the day I moved from karting into single-seater racing, and we are all looking forward to Formula Regional.”
Nasser Al Attiyah (Qatar) – Motorsport
Nasser Al Attiyah’s experience in the 2024 Dakar Rally was one to forget, and probably the worst of his career, but the five-time champion is now ready for a new adventure with Dacia Sandriders at this month’s edition of Dakar.
The reigning World Rally-Raid champion is a master of two sports, given he has also won an Olympic bronze medal in skeet shooting at London 2012.
With five victories, 11 podiums and 48 individual stage wins from 20 previous Dakar Rally appearances, Al Attiyah is one of the top contenders in Saudi Arabia this month.
The 54-year-old Qatari can also draw confidence from his triumph at the Rally Morocco at the end of the end of the 2024 season, which was his first competitive outing in the Dacia Sandrider.
“I think it is going to be one of the closest Dakars ever, because I have never seen four manufacturers who are so competitive and with such a chance of victory before,” predicts rally legend Carlos Sainz.
Will it be a sixth success for Al Attiyah?
Ramzi Boukhiam (Morocco) – Surfing
After spending 10 years chasing a coveted qualification spot in the World Surf League’s Championship Tour, Ramzi Boukhiam finally made history and became the first Moroccan, North African, or Arab rider to make it to surfing’s highest tier of competition in 2024.
The Moroccan impressed in his debut season on the CT, finishing his campaign ranked 12th in the world, with a third place in Tahiti and a fifth in Portugal among his highlights for the year.
Boukhiam also made his second appearance at the Olympics in 2024, where he took part in one of the highest-scoring heats to ever occur at the Games.
The 31-year-old Moroccan will be back chasing waves among the world’s best in 2025, and will get to compete in the WSL’s first shortboard stop in the Arab world when the CT comes to Surf Abu Dhabi in February.
