The Confederation of African Football has announced a five man shortlist for the prestigious 2014 African Player of the Award. The body released the shortlist via a statement on its official website and also through various media channels.
The nominations for the award, initially announced last month featured 25 of Africa’s best performing footballers in the last year and following a critical review, CAF’s technical committee have announced a shortlist of five players up for the award this year.
They are Ahmed Musa (Nigeria and CSKA Moscow), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana and Al Ain), Pierre – Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon and Borussia Dortmund), Vincent Enyeama (Nigeria and Lille) and Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire and Manchester City).
The news comes as a bit of respite for Nigerian football after two players, Ahmed Musa and Vincent Enyeama made the final cut for the award. Nigerian football has seen its reputation plunge to shocking depths as the defending champions of the continent surprisingly failed to confirm qualification for the 2015 African Cup of Nations.
CAF also announced the shortlist for the African Player of the Year (Based in Africa) award which featured Akram Djahnit (Algeria and E.S. Setif), El Hedi Belamieri (Algeria and E.S. Setif), Fakhreddine Ben Youssef (Tunisia and C.S. Sfaxien), Firmin Mubele Ndombe (D.R Congo and AS Vita) and the late Senzo Robert Meyiwa (South Africa and Orlando Pirates).
Meanwhile, one of the players nominated for the big prize Asamoah Gyan has stated that he deserves to win the award following what he described as his ‘best’ year.
“Every football fan in Africa knows how I have done my best for my country and my club. I qualified Ghana as a captain to a third consecutive World Cup and now the top scorer at a World Cup and have won everything with Al-Ain and therefore with the support from my countrymen and the coaches on the continent this prize can’t elude me,” Gyan said.
The award gala, which will feature announcements of winners of various award categories, will be held on January 8th 2015 in Lagos and is sponsored by Nigerian telecommunications giants, Globacom.
