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Aubameyang, Mahrez, Three others Make Top Five List
*No Nigerian player nominated in top two categories
Duro Ikhazuagbe
For the second year running no Nigerian player has been found good enough to make the top five shortlist of the 2016 African Player of the Year category of the Glo-CAF Awards announced yesterday by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo.
The players were shortlisted from 30 players who earlier were nominated for the African Player of the Year category.
Similarly, no Nigerian was listed among the five nominees for the African Player of the Year (Based in Africa) category.
Top on the list is the reigning African Footballer of the Year and Borussia Dortmund winger, Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
He is joined by Senegal and Liverpool midfielder, Sadio Mane, and Mohamed Salah of As Roma of Italy and Egypt. The two other players shortlisted are Algeria’s duo of Riyad Mahrez and Islam Slimani who both play for Leicester City of England.
In the African Player of the Year (Based in Africa) category, the five shortlisted players include the quartet of Dennis Onyango, Hlompho Kekana, Keegan Dolly and Khama Billiat from the 2016 African Champions League winning side, Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, while T.P Mazembe player, Rainford Kabala from Zambia completed the list.
Top Nigerian players, Kelechi Iheanacho of Manchester City, Chelsea’s John Mikel Obi and Ahmed Musa of Leicester City made the top 30 but narrowly missed out of the Top 5 list.
Other categories of Awards to be released by CAF in the coming weeks include Most Promising Talent Award, National Team of the Year, Football Manager of the Year, Africa’s Finest Eleven, Goal of the Year and Save of the Year. Others are Referee of the Year, CAF Fair Play Award and African Legend Award.
The winners will be decided by votes from the Head Coaches and Technical Directors of the national associations affiliated to CAF.
They will be unveiled at the Glo- CAF Awards Gala nite which will take place on Thursday, January 5, 2017 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, Nigeria.
Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was crowned African Player of the Year whilst Mbwana Aly Samatta of Tanzania was named African Player of the Year (Based in Africa) last year.
