The Confederation of African Football has released the nominations shortlist for the 2014 African Player of the Year award The prestigious award, given in recognition of Africa’s finest player over the last one year, is handed out every year with lots of glitz and glamour. The football governing body also released the shortlist for the 2014 African (home based) Player of the Year- an award in recognition of the best footballer based in Africa.

In total, the African Player of the Year award saw twenty-five nominations. Front-runner and reigning African footballer of the Year, Yaya Toure was unsurprisingly present on the list alongside other big names such as Asamoah Gyan and Vincent Enyeama. Algeria, Africa’s highest rated team on the latest FIFA rankings have the most nominated players with four mainly due to their excellent start to the African Cup of Nations qualifying series as well as their creditable performances at the 2014 World Cup.

Other big football nations saw multiple nominations as Ivory Coast had three players nominated while Tunisia, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon had two each. Nations like South Africa, DR Congo, Morocco and Gabon all had single player nominations. Interestingly two clubs provided the joint most number of nominated players as FC Porto’s Vincent Aboubakar and Yacine Brahimi feature alongside CS Sfaxien’s Fakhreddine Ben Youssef and Ferdjani Sassi.



Below is a full list of the nominations shortlist for the 2014 African Player of the Year award.



1. Ahmed Musa (Nigeria, CSKA Moscow)

2. Asamoah Gyan (Ghana, Al Ain)

3. Dame N’doye (Senegal, Lokomotiv Moscow)

4. Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo, Tottenham)

5. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (Cameroon, Schalke 04)

6. Fakhreddine Ben Youssef (Tunisia, CS Sfaxien)

7. Ferdjani Sassi (Tunisia, CS Sfaxien)

8. Yao Kouassi Gervais ‘Gervinho’ (Cote d’Ivoire, AS Roma)

9. Islam Slimani (Algeria, Sporting Lisbon)

10. Kwadwo Asamoah (Ghana, Juventus)

11. Mehdi Benatia (Morocco, Bayern Munich)

12. Mohamed El Neny (Egypt, Basel)

13. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon, Borussia Dortmund)

14. Raïs M’Bolhi (Algeria, Philadelphia Union)

15. Sadio Mané (Senegal, Southampton)

16. Seydou Kieta (Mali, As Roma)

17. Sofiane Feghouli (Algeria, Valencia)

18. Stephane Mbia (Cameroon, Sevilla)

19. Thulani Serero (South Africa, Ajax)

20. Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon, Porto)

21. Vincent Enyeama (Nigeria, Lille)

22. Wilfried Bony (Cote d’Ivoire, Swansea)

23. Yacine Brahimi (Algeria, Porto)

24. Yannick Bolasie (DR Congo, Crystal Palace)

25. Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire, Man City)


The winner of the prestigious gong will be announced on January 8th 2015 at a gala ceremony slated to take place in Lagos, Nigeria. The winner of the award is usually decided by an intricate voting process from the Head Coaches/Technical Directors of the National Associations affiliated to the Confederation of African Football.


http://www.ventures-africa.com/2014/11/caf-reveals-shortlist-for-african-player-of-the-year/