The reigning African Player of the Year, Didier Drogba, has a chance to add a 3rd to his 2009 and 2006 titles.
The shortlist of nominees for Africa’s Footballer of the Year were released today, naming five players up for the 2010 award. A few months ago, a longer list was leaked – and denounced – that included 17 players being considered for the award. As always, the award will be given to the player who best represented the continent at the club and national level of the game.
And the nominees are…
Didier Drogba (Côte D'Ivoire/Chelsea)
Salomon Kalou (Côte D'Ivoire/Chelsea)
Asamoah Gyan (Ghana/Sunderland)
Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon/Inter)
Seydou Keita (Mali/Barcelona)
As I mentioned, this is just a shortlist – meaning this list will be trimmed down to create a final list of three players. Basically, this is a list of nominees to be nominated for the award. So, these five will have to wait until the final list is announced on December 11th to break out the champagne bottles to celebrate. After that, it is a short wait until the awards ceremony on December 20th in Cairo to congratulate the new African Player of the Year.
So, how is this shindig decided?
Unlike the FIFA Ballon D’Or which includes votes from journalists, coaches and national team captains – the African Player of the Year is decided by the national coaches of the continent’s 53 countries affiliated with the Confederation of African Football (CAF). So, when making your predictions – consider the qualities valued by coaches.
Who are the favorites?
Well, the heavy weights in this competition are pretty easy to pick out. Both Drogba and Eto’o have already previously won the award. Drogba is the reigning African Player of the Year, having won in 2009 for the second time since picking up the award in 2006. Eto’o won three consecutive awards in 2003, 2004 and 2005. On reputation and name alone, they would have to be considered as serious contenders. Especially with their recent club success. Eto’o led Inter to Serie A and European glory last season and Drogba played a pivotal role in Chelsea’s title win.
But, neither of those players had spectacular World Cups this summer. Both the Ivory coast and Cameroon failed to qualify for the knock-out stages of the tournament, which may overshadow both Eto’o and Drogba’s impressive club performances.
It wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that the voters might give more weight to the World Cup since it was the continent’s first time hosting the event (in addition to being the sport’s most coveted award). But, if that was true – wouldn’t they have named more African players who excelled this summer? Ghana’s single nomination is a bit of a surprise for me considering the stand-out performances of Andre Ayew (Marseille/Ghana) and Kevin Prince Boateng (Milan/Ghana) – both of whom have also been performing well for their clubs since returning from South Africa.
But, instead of going with a couple of young, fresh faces – the EPL received two additional nominees in Sunderland’s Gyan and Chelsea’s Kalou. If Gyan were to win, it would be due to the success of the entire Ghana team this summer. His goals and leadership helped Ghana reach the quarterfinals this summer – but Ghana’s success was a result of a team effort, not a single individual’s performance.
Kalou doesn’t appear to stand much of a chance of winning this award, being overshadowed by Drogba in every possible way. Given that they play for the same team at both the club and national level, Drogba will always outshine him when it comes to praise and awards.
The only player who may have less of a chance of winning this award than Kalou is Barcelona and Mali’s Seydou Keita. Unless of course, you factor in nepotism- then his chances increase dramatically. As the nephew of former African Footballer of the Year, Salif Keita (1970) – he has a chance to carry on the family legacy. But, as I said: that chance appears to be very small. Based on his club performance and Barcelona’s success this year, it is hard to argue he outshined Drogba or Eto’o. On the international level, his chances only continue to dwindle. He is the only player on this list who plays for a country (Mali) not present at this summer’s World Cup. Mali also did not progress to the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations in January. So, while its nice to have his individual talent recognized and to include smaller nations in the spotlight – it seems unlikely to amount to more than that.
But, the player of the year isn’t the only trophy up for grabs in Cairo in a few weeks time.
Other awards include…
Young Player of the Year: Kwadwo Asamoah (Udinese and Ghana), Ryad Boudebouz (Sochaux and Algeria) and Moussa Maazou (Bordeaux and Nigeria)
National Team of the Year: Algeria, Egypt and Ghana
Coach of the Year: Lamine N’Diaye (TP Mazembe Englebert, winner of CAF Champions League title), Milovan Rajevac (Ghana’s World Cup manager) and Hassan Shehata (Egypt).
Best African-based Player: Alain Dioko (TP Mazembe), Mohamed Gedo and Ahmed Hassan (both Al-Ahly)
Best African Club: CS Sfaxien (Tunisia), FUS Rabat (Morocco) and TP Mazembe (DR Congo)
Posts
