Posted by Sayed Otaru

by Sayed Otaru

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) released an unsurprising list for the 2010 African Player of the Year. 2010 saw the occurrence of 28th African Cup of Nations, multiple African players plying their trade successfully in Europe (which is the continent whose club league traditionally plays a major part in determining the winner), the World Cup in South Africa, the CAF Champions League, and the CAF Confederation Cup. Africa's most celebrated performer of 2010 is sure to have been a prominent presence in some of the aforementioned competitions with the tilt likely to go to the competitions were the national teams were involved (all things considered).

* Note that this is a separate award from the "CAF African based Player of the Year" award.*

The CAF Player of the Year award means a lot to African football fans. As a boy, I beamed with extreme happiness to see the likes of Emmanuel Amunike, Papillo (Kanu Nwankwo), and Victor Ikpeba win this very award as Nigerians. I believe a similar level of pride is felt by countrymen of the other winners over time.


Andre 'Dede' Ayew, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Madjid Bougherra, Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto'o Fils, Asamoah Gyan, Ahmed Hassan, Salomon Kalou, Seydou Keita, and Mohamed 'Gedo' Nagy are the chosen 10 vying for Africa's top individual honor.


I believe there can only be 3 credible candidates for this award and here is why in a nutshell:

Ayew - Good Nations Cup, average performance in the second tier of French football on loan at AC Arles-Avignon. Showed a lot of potential and put in some good displays at the World Cup.

Boateng - Only became 'African' on May 12th, 2010. Average perfomance at Portsmouth, solid World Cup, average start at AC Milan.

Bougherra - Though he scored in the shocking victory over Cote d'Ivoire at the Cup of Nations, the Algerian defense line wasn't the most convincing.

Hassan - One of the legends of Egyptian football. While he was at the heartbeat o the Pharaohs record 7th title, Egypt failed to make it to the World Cup.

Kalou - Like most of the Ivorian players, he failed to shine for the national team at both the Cup of Nations and the World Cup. Kalou was also not the best African player in 2010 at Chelsea Football Club.

Keita - Had a very disappointing African Cup of Nations with the entire Malian squad, albeit he played his part in that cracker of a game against Mali with 2 crucial goals in the coming down from 4-0 to tie the game 4-4 with 11 minutes to go. Mali played no part in the 2010 World Cup, albeit Keita put in good displays for FC Barcelona

Nagy - The surprise of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. The super sub and recent introduction to Pharaoh football, Nagy had a fantastic tournament ending up as top scorer, the scorer of the lone goal at the finals and tournament champion. Egypt's absence from the World Cup hurts his stake for me.

Getting down to Drogba, Eto'o and Gyan. On the face of it, this is a very impressive set of names. In all fairness on the global stage, neither of these 3 players would be in the top 5 players of 2010. The pedigrees of Eto'o and Drogba are not in question, but 2010 was a year were much was expected of them for their national sides and overall they did not deliver.

Eto'o was relatively subdued by his exalted standards for his new club Internazionale both in Serie A and Europe, as he was often used out wide as opposed to down the middle. Eto'o still had a good return of goals for the Italians as well as some crucial goals for them. Paul Le Guen would do the same with him (as he did in the World Cup qualifiers) at the Africa Cup of Nations and even more extremely at the World Cup save for the last game. Roger Milla's ill advised comments (jealousy if you ask me) didn't do much to help Eto'o going into the World Cup. Cameroon were very disappointing and the Lion King couldn't do much to get his troops marching. Rumors of in-fighting between Eto'o and Emana definitely didn't help his product on the field.

Drogba was very disappointing for the Ivorians - the quarter final game against Algeria in Cabinda will long live in the memory as one of his most abject performances for Les Elephants as they got eliminated by a technically inferior Desert Foxes team. An injury prior to the World Cup didn't help Drogba's intent to take the competition by storm - albeit he did score against Brazil. While Drogba terrorized teams in England (top scorer in the premier league), he failed to do it where it mattered the most as far as this award is concerned. Drogba was also said to be at the center of some alleged in-fighting during the Africa Cup of Nations by the former coach Halilhodzic.


Asamoah Gyan is a name non-African football enthusiasts must have certainly etched in their memories (incase his exploits at the 2006 World Cup were already forgotten) in 2010. Gyan played as a lone striker in Rajevac's preferred 4-5-1 formation. Gyan led the front line of a very young Ghanaian side (virtually given no chance) surprisingly all the way to the final scoring 3 crucial goals in the process. Gyan embodied the spirit of some of the African legends of yesteryear in Angola and later on in South Africa - grit and persistence being the markers.

Gyan isn't your typical out and out prolific striker, but his extra time winning goal against the United States in the second round of the World Cup would have you think otherwise. When all's said and done, Gyan had the best World Cup of all the nominees which ended with 3 goals and as well as in tears in tears. Since the World Cup, Gyan has had a good start to life at his new club Sunderland scoring some important goals for the English club.

There have been some jaw dropping decisions by the voting body and CAF in previous years. Didier Drogba winning out over Eto'o (2009), and Kanoute over Drogba (2007) readily come to mind. In a year of many disappointments for African Football - Asamoah Gyan is my African Footballer of the Year on the strength of his performances for the Black Stars.



I should note that the BBC has a 'similar award' allegedly driven by fan votes - said 'award' has never honored Samuel Eto'o as the best player in Africa. That in itself is as high a football related crime as ever existed in my humble opinion. Samuel Eto'o is considered by many well informed viewers of the African game as the best footballer the continent has ever produced.