Connect with us

International Football

MOSES, JUNIOR AJAYI CROSS FIRST HURDLE IN CAF AWARD

Published

on

BY BOLAJI OKUNOLA.

 

As the race for the picking of the African Player of the Year and Player of the Year (Based in Africa) gathers momentum, two of the three Nigerians initially shortlisted for the two categories have made it to the next round.

Victor Moses for the African Player of the Year and Junior Ajayi for the based in Africa categories have made the cut as the original lists of 30 players in each category have been pruned to 10 and 11 respectively. Unfortunately, Super Eagles’ William  Troost-Ekong who was in the original 30-man list did not make it to the next stage.

According to a press release by CAF on Monday, the reduction of the number of nominees was done after votes from members of the CAF Technical & Development Committee, CAF Media Experts Panel and Independent Media and TV Consultants were counted.

Advertisement

Next is to further reduce the nominees to single digits ahead of the January 4 CAF/Aiteo Award in Accra on January 4, 2018.

The second and final phase will involve Head Coaches or Technical Directors of the National Associations taking part in the voting exercise and ten members from the Independent Media and TV Consultants group.

According to CAF, for the first time, captains of the senior men’s national teams of the affiliated National Associations will also take part in decision making process of the African Player of the Year and Player of the Year (Based in Africa).

 

African Player of the Year (alphabetical order)

Advertisement
  1. Bertrand Traore (Burkina Faso & Olympique Lyon)
  2. Denis Onyango (Uganda & Mamelodi Sundowns)
  3. Karim El Ahmadi (Morocco & Feyenoord)
  4. Keita Balde (Senegal & Monaco)
  5. Mohamed Salah (Egypt & Liverpool)
  6. Naby Keita (Guinea & RB Leipzig)
  7. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon & B. Dortmund)
  8. Sadio Mane (Senegal & Liverpool)
  9. Victor Moses (Nigeria & Chelsea)
  10. Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon & Porto)
  11. Yacine Brahimi (Algeria & Porto)

 

Player of the Year (Based in Africa)

  1. Achraf Bencharki (Morocco & Wydad Athletic Club)
  2. Ahmed Fathi (Egypt & Al Ahly)
  3. Ali Maaloul (Tunisia & Al Ahly)
  4. Aristide Bance (Burkina Faso & El Masry)
  5. Ben Malango (DR Congo & TP Mazembe)
  6. Denis Onyango (Uganda & Mamelodi Sundowns)
  7. Jeremy Brockie (New Zealand & Supersport)
  8. Junior Ajayi (Nigeria & Al Ahly)
  9. Mohamed Ounnajem (Morocco & Wydad Athletic Club)
  10. Taha Yassine Khenisssi (Tunisia & Esperance)

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

Continue Reading
Advertisement