BIGGEST SOCCER ACCOLADE
Yes, 2013 BBC African player of year award has come and gone.The
Ivory Coast and Manchester City midfielder, who had been nominated in
each of the past four years, beat Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Victor
Moses, John Mikel Obi and Jonathan Pitroipa to this year's crown.
The
shortlist for the award was drawn up by 44 football experts across
Africa, who based their choices on players' skill, technical ability,
teamwork, consistency and fair play.
A record number of fans then voted for their favorite
either online or by text message.
And those fans have
considered Toure to be the standout African player over the past year,
in recognition of the Ivorian's displays of power, pace, creativity and
goals.
Toure said: "Thank you to all the fans around the world who
continue to support me. It shows how much fans love you and appreciate
your job as well.
But, BBC AWARD is not criteria to win African award.JJ Okocha once
won BBC but missed out it African Award, the story will swing again
this time around.
THE LIST FOR AFRICAN FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR
The Confederation of African Football have announced the list of the
top-ten nominees for the African Player of the Year Award with Nigeria’s
Mikel Obi making the list. Nigerian players: Mikel, John Utaka and
Victor Moses were listed in the first long list of 34 players released
last month by CAF before the cut.
Mikel has continued to run
based on the strength of his winning the English FA Cup and the UEFA
Champions League with Chelsea last season.
The African body also on Sunday released the names of the five players remaining in the run for Africa-based Player of the Year.
The
statement from Cairo explained that the CAF’s Technical, Football and
Media Committees decided on the current shortlists which will now be
passed on to head coaches of each of the African countries and technical
directors from CAF member associations whose votes will decide the
eventual winners.
The confederation will announce the top three
in the last week of November while the winners will be unveiled at a
ceremony to be held December 20 in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
Ivorian
Yaya Toure was voted the 2011 African Player of the Year while Tunisian
Oussam Darragi was crowned last year’s African Player of the Year-Based
in Africa
Mikel who has been on the international limelight for
the past one week following the controversial English Premier League
between his English club Chelsea and Manchester United becomes the first
Nigerian to get that far in many years. The last time a Nigerian won
the prestigious African award was in 1999 when Kanu Nwankwo of Arsenal
swept aside other contestants. In 2003 Austin Okocha finished third
behind Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o. The following year he rose to the
second position behind Eto’o and then after that Nigerian players took
the slide down the pole with Nigerian football generally.
Mikel
is competing against his former teammate and one of the favourites
Didier Drogba who also won the same trophies with Mikel. Drogba’s goals
were very crucial in their European cup success last season. The other
key contender is current champion Yaya Toure who won the English league
title with Manchester City. There is also Christopher Katongo who led an
unheralded Zambian side to the African title in February.
Top Ten Players List
Alexander Song
Andre Ayew
Christopher Katongo
Demba Ba
Didier Drogba
Gervais Lombe Yao Kouassi
John Obi Mikel
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Yaya Toure
Younes Belhanda
MIKEL: WHO THE CAP FITS........
After waiting for seven years, the Super Eagles and Chelsea FC
midfielder, John Obi Mikel, finally scored his first English Premier
League goal against Fulham on September 21, 2013, Saturday, rapidly
increasing his chances for the Glo/CAF African Footballer Of The Year
Award billed for Lagos next year.
The fans in Nigeria celebrated
the goal with frenzy, with some calling jokingly on the Federal
Government to declare seven days holiday to mark the end of Mikel’s goal
drought. It may sound amazing but that was the wish of Nigerian
football fans.
Football pundits in Nigeria are of the view that
Mikel should be rewarded with the 2013 edition of the Glo/CAF African
Footballer of The Year Award by the Confederation of African Football
(CAF), judging by his recent performances.
With a 2013 African
Cup of Nations medal, the UEFA Champions League and EUROPA League medals
to his credit, some believe that it is time Mikel was crowned the best
player in Africa.
Since Stephen Keshi was named as coach of the
Super Eagles, Mikel has been a regular, with his sterling performance on
the field as an added advantage for him if CAF wants to look in that
direction in giving him the award. Mikel’s five star performances at the
Nations Cup was pivotal to ending Nigeria’s 19 years wait before
winning the AFCON tourney in South Africa early in the year.
The
Super Eagles had an abysmal performance at the 2013 Confederations Cup
held in Brazil but Mikel, the former Lyn Oslo of Norway player, was on
the scorer’s sheet in the 6-1 bashing of little known Tahiti.
There
are three other players standing in Mikel’s way for the award and they
are his compatriots, Emmanuel Emenike of Fenerbahce of Turkey, Victor
Moses, who is on loan to Liverpool from Chelsea FC and Cote d’Ivoire’s
Yaya Toure.
Therefore, Mikel has shown increase of his
performance while Toure’s team were ousted from the Nations Cup, which
makes it a lot easier for the Nigerian to grab the CAF award.
-courtesy: news.naij.
SUMMARY: Hand Mikel this award now, he has done better than all ten