Prime News Ghana

CAF African Footballer of the Year Award-Past winners

By Mutala Yakubu
CAF AWARDS
Past winners of the African Footballer of the Year award
Shares
facebook sharing button Share
twitter sharing button Tweet
email sharing button Email
sharethis sharing button Share

The CAF African Footballer of the Year Award has seen many great footballers pick up the accolade since its inception in 1992.

Ghana's Abedi Pele was the first player to win the accolade back in 1992 with Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon and Ivory Coast's Yaya Toure having the most with four awards each.

{loadmodule mod_banners,nativeads}

An earlier African Footballer of the Year Golden Ball award was given out between 1970 and 1994 by France Football magazine.

The changes resulted in parallel Golden Ball awards given out to Abedi Pele and George Weah in 1993 and 1994 by the magazine although the CAF sponsored awards for those years were won respectively by Rashidi Yekini and Emmanuel Amuneke, as well as two awards given to Abedi Pelé in 1992.

France Football discontinued the election from 1995 after the European Ballon d'Or also awarded by the magazine had been opened to all players in the European leagues.

In all, there have been 17 winners from 10 different countries since the inaugural awards back in 1992.

It is still a mystery as to why some good footballers like Jay Jay Okocha and Mohammed Aboutrika were not able to win the top award.

The likes of Stephen Appiah, Micheal Essien have all missed out on this award considering their exploits for both club and country in the peak of their careers.

Read also:Video:Morata miss a sitter as Chelsea draw 2-2 with Arsenal

Today will see another African player been crowned African Footballer of the Year at the Accra International Conference centre exactly 16:00 GMT.

The three finalist are Gabon's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Senegal's Sadio Mane and Egypt's Mohammed Salah.

PREVIOUS WINNERS

1992: Abedi Pele (Ghana)

1993: Rashidi Yekini (Nigeria)

1994: Emmanuel Amuneke (Nigeria)

1995: George Weah (Liberia)

1996: Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria)

1997: Victor Ikpeba (Nigeria)

1998: Mustapha Hadji (Morocco)

1999: Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria)

2000: Patrick Mboma (Cameroon)

2001: El-Hadji Diouf (Senegal)

2002: El-Hadji Diouf (Senegal)

2003: Samuel Eto’o Fils (Cameroon)

2004: Samuel Eto’o Fils (Cameroon)

2005: Samuel Eto’o Fils (Cameroon)

2006: Didier Drogba (Cote d’Ivoire)

2007: Frederic Kanoute (Mali)

2008: Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo)

2009: Didier Drogba (Cote d’Ivoire)

2010: Samuel Eto’o Fils (Cameroon)

2011: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire)

2012: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire)

2013: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire)

2014: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire)

2015: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon)

2016: Riyad Mahrez (Algeria)

Â