CAF has released its shortlist for the African Football of the Year with a number of regular star players missing from the list. This year’s award will be hotly contested by Chelsea’s Didier Drogba, Inter’s Samuel Eto’o and Sunderland’s Asamoah Gyan.
Both Drogba and Eto’o had stellar performances with their clubs, however, it is Gyan’s World Cup exploits that is the highlight of them all. Fellow compatriots Kevin Prince Boateng and Andre Ayew (son of former African Footballer of the Year Abedi Pele) are also on the shortlist.
Below is the full list of players.
Ahmed Hassan (Egypt and Al-Ahly)
Andre Ayew (Ghana and Marseille)
Kevin-Prince Boateng (Ghana and AC Milan )
Madjid Bougherra (Algeria and Rangers)
Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast and Chelsea)
Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon and Inter Milan)
Mohamed ‘Gedo’ Nagy (Egypt and Al-Ahly)
Asamoah Gyan (Ghana and Sunderland)
Salomon Kalou (Ivory Coast and Chelsea)
Seydou Keita (Mali and Barcelona)
Missing from the list are Emmanuel Adebayor, Michael Essien and Yaya Toure. However to be fair, they really did not deserve to be on the list anyway. Adebayor showed flashes of brilliance when he first joined Manchester City from Arsenal last summer but he has since fizzled out.
The same goes for the injury prone Michael Essien. Essien has struggled for fitness ever since he tore a knee ligament during an Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers last October. He remained out of the Chelsea squad for the rest of the season even missing out on the World Cup-in my view Ghana played better without him.
If i were to pick a winner, it would have to be Gyan. Here’s why. The World Cup was not only a South African affair but an Africa affair. With only 6 representatives, most of the continent rallied behind South Africa, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Algeria.
Of all these teams, Ghana progressed the furthest and as so the hopes of the entire continent rested on the young shoulder of the Black Stars. Although, thier quarter final defeat to Uruguay was hard to accept for most Africans, majority of them still appreciated their performance.
So the African Footballer of the Year 2010 is Asamoah Gyan-at least according to me.
Photo credit: from ღ Robin Hood™ ღ
