TEMITAYO OJEWUNMI / AIPS* in LAGOS: Manchester City midfielder, Yaya Toure has been crowned the African Player for the fourth time.
He clinched the award for the first time in year 2011, and never stopped.
Toure, who beat Gabonese and Borussia Dortmund midfielder Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang plus Nigeria and Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama to the prize received the award from Confederation of African Football president Isa Hayatou at a ceremony which held at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos Nigeria.
“It’s a privilege to have won the award yet again, respect to my fellow nominees Vincent Enyeama and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. My hard work is finally paying off,”said the Ivory Coast midfielder.
The event had 16 other categories seeing Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala win African Woman footballer of the year following her exploits at the FIFA Wowen’s World Cup, Canada 2014 and the African Women Championship, Namibia 2014 which Nigeria lifted the trophy for the seventh time, she won the Most Valuable Player at both tournaments.
Award winners
African Player of the Year
Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire and Manchester City)
African Player of the Year – Based in Africa
Firmin Mubele Ndombe (DR Congo and AS Vita)
Women’s Player of the Year
Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria and River Angels)
Youth Player of the Year
Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria and River Angels)
Most Promising Talent
Yacine Brahimi (Algeria and Porto)
Coach of the Year
Kheireddine Madoui (ES Setif)
National Team of the Year
Algeria
Women’s National Team of the Year
Nigeria
Club of the Year
ES Setif (Algeria)
Referee of the Year
Papa Bakary Gassama (Gambia)
Football Leader of the Year
Moise Katumbi Chapwe – President of TP Mazembe (DR Congo)
African Legend award
Oryx Club (Cameroon) – winners of the maiden edition of CAF Champions League 1964
Stade Malien (Mali) – runner up of the maiden edition of CAF Champion’s League 1964
Platinum Award
Kwame Nkrumah (First President of Ghana)
Excellency Goodluck Jonthan (President of Nigeria)
CAF Finest XI
Goalkeeper: Vincent Enyeama (Nigeria)
Defenders: Jean Kasulula (DR Congo), Mehdi Benatia (Morocco), Stephane Mbia (Cameroon), Kwadwo Asamoah (Ghana)
Midfielders: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire), Yacine Brahimi (Algeria), Fakhreddine Ben Youssef (Tunisia), Ahmed Musa (Nigeria)
Forwards: Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon)
Substitutes: Raïs M’Bolhi (Algeria), Firmin Mubele Ndombe (DR Congo), Ferdjani Sassi (Tunisia), Yao Kouasi Gervais ‘Gervinho (Cote d’Ivoire), Abdelrahman Fetori (Libya), Akram Djahnit (Algeria), Roger Assalé (Cote d’Ivoire).
** AIPS is the international sports journalists’ association with 10,000 members worldwide. More information: www.AIPSmedia.com
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