The Confederation of African Football yesterday, released a shortlist of the 10 players still in the race for the 2015 Glo/CAF African Player of the Year award with no Nigerian player on the list.
Former Super Eagles captain Vincent Enyema and the new captain Ahmed Musa, who were on the 37-man list, dropped off when CAF released the top-10 names on Monday. Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure is in contention to win the Confederation of African Football player of the year award for a fifth consecutive year.
The 32-year-old Manchester City player first won the title in 2011, and another would give him a record fifth award, one more than Samuel Eto’o. Toure led Ivory Coast to an African Cup of Nations glory at the start of the year, helping his country put behind them years of narrowly failing to win their second title.
The last Nigerian player to win the coveted trophy was former Super Eagles captain, Nwankwo Kanu, who won the African Player of the Year in 1999. Since then, the best Nigerians have achieved is finishing within the top three, with Mikel Obi being runner-up to Yaya Toure in 2013.
The Awards gala will be held on Thursday, 7 January 2016 in Abuja, Nigeria.
Below is the Top 10 list of the players with their countries and clubs in parentheses
CAF TOP 10 SHORTLIST
Andre Ayew (Ghana & Swansea)
Aymen Abdennour (Tunisia & Valencia)
Mudather Eltaib Ibrahim ‘Karika’ (Sudan & El Hilal)
Mohamed Salah (Egypt & Roma)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon & Borussia Dortmund)
Sadio Mane (Senegal & Southampton)
Serge Aurier (Cote d’Ivoire & Paris Saint Germain)
Sofiane Feghouli (Algeria & Valencia)
Yacine Brahimi ( Algeria & Porto)
Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire & Manchester City)
