Glo CAF Award: Enyeama, Toure in face-off

Super Eagles’ goal­keeper and cap­tain, Vincent En­yeama aims to turn the table against the current holder of the CAF African Footballer of the Year, Yaya Toure, as the new African king will be crowned today in Lagos.

Enyeama, Yaya Toure and Gabonese midfielder Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang made the final top three for the 2014 African Player of the Year.

The trio made the cut follow­ing votes from Head Coaches or Technical Directors of the National Associations affiliat­ed to CAF. Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan and Ahmed Musa of Ni­geria failed to make the final list.

Enyeama’s excellent work between the sticks provided a platform upon which Lille secured qualification for the Champions League play-off round. Their defensive re­cord was key to this achieve­ment as they conceded only 26 goals all season, second only to champions Paris Saint- Germain.

Enyeama kept 11 consecu­tive clean sheets in Ligue 1 matches during the first half of the season and finally conced­ed a goal after playing 1,062 minutes of Ligue 1 football in an away match against Bor­deaux. He thus came within 114 minutes of equalling Gaetan Huard’s Ligue 1 goal­keeping record, set in 1993, of playing 1,176 minutes without conceding a goal.

The goalkeeper played a ma­jor role en route Nigeria’s lift­ing the AFCON 2013 trophy in South Africa after 19 years. He was also in brilliant form both at the Confederations Cup and the World Cup hosted in Brazil in 2014. The former Enyimba of Aba safest pair of hands was rewarded by being named the Ligue 1 African Player of the Season, and was recently named the Best Goalkeeper in France during 2014.

On the other hand, Yaya Toure is very keen about win­ning the award for the fourth time consecutively and also equal Samuel Eto’o’s record.

Eto’o had been crowned an unprecedented four times – 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010, whilst Toure had a hat-trick of titles (2011, 2012, 2013). For­mer Senegal forward, El Hadji Diouf won the award twice in a row; 2001 and 2002.

Though, the Ivorian had a terrifying World Cup in Bra­zil but he succeded to guiding Manchester City to win the English Premier League title. He’s also vital to the Etihad side campaign in the UEFA Champions League.

Similarly, Aubameyang became an instant hit in the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund.

The player, who left Ligue 1 side, Saint Etienne in 2013 has scored good number of goals for club and his country, Ga­bon. For the African Player of the Year (Based in Africa), Al­gerian duo, Akram Djahnit and El Hedi Belamieri are in con­tention with DR Congo for­ward Firmin Mubele Ndombe.

Winners of the prestigious honour had come from either the midfield or attack; and that tradition will either be re­spected yet again or broken for the first time with a goalkeeper amongst the contenders. In ad­dition, the 14 players to have been decorated since 1992 had and continue to remain amongst the foremost African ambassadors of the world’s most popular sport.