Africa Footballer of Year award February

  1. Posted on Monday 12 January 2009 - 16:05
    Sam Banda Junior
    Image of Sam Banda Junior
    Sam Banda Junior, AfricaNews reporter in Blantyre, Malawi
    The African Footballer of the Year announcement has been postponed to February 10 in Lagos, Nigeria, the Confederation of African Football said on Monday. The CAF, who had already set two previous dates for the winner, most recently scheduled the annual awards function for Dakar on January 23, 2009.
    CAF_Logo
    They said the change was an attempt to secure the presence of all five nominated players led by former winner Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast, according to Reuters.

    Drogba has already said he has no interest in the award after a controversial decision to strip him of the 2007 accolade.

    The other nominees are his Chelsea club mate Michael Essien of Ghana; Arsenal's Togolese international Emmanuel Adebayor; Egypt striker Amr Zaki, who plays at Wigan Athletic, and Mohamed Aboutrika, who scored the winning goal for the Pharoahs in February's African Nations Cup finals.

    Drogba won in 2006 and had been expected to take it again in 2007. However it was given instead to Mali's Frederic Kanoute when the Ivory Coast captain refused to travel to Togo for the award ceremony.

    Drogba said at the time that he had been told by CAF officials he would not get the award if he did not attend the gala, which came just two days before Ivory Coast's Nations Cup quarter-final against Guinea.

    This year's finalists were chosen by members of CAF's media and technical committee. The national team coaches of Africa's 53 member countries now vote for the winner.

Latest News

  1. OPINION: Welcome to African Green Revolution24/05For the past century and a half, Africa has tried various agricultural approaches without much success.
  2. Egyptians vote in historic election23/05Egyptians began voting freely on Wednesday for the first time to pick their president in a wide open election that pits Islamists against men who serv…
  3. Africa Day 2012 - a moment for reflection and…22/0525th May is Africa Day. For many years it has been a celebration of African unity. It dates back to 1963 when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) …
  4. South Africa's African agenda21/05The Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Kgalema Mothlanthe paid a rare visit to Ghana in April at the invitation of John Dramani Mahama …
  5. Women struggle to rinse hunger, poverty stains21/05Just looking at her one clearly appreciates that she is old and frail therefore in need of support for food, clothing and shelter to live comfortably …
  6. Climate Climate change affects migratory birds…21/05Changes in the climate globally have affected the movement of both migratory and resident species of birds, Nature Uganda has said.
  7. Ghana: Foreign retailers cited for currency…18/05The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) is attributing the sharp depreciation of the Ghana cedi against major currencies to the illegal activiti…
  8. Kenya: Community radio brings succour to…18/05Korogocho, a slum in northeastern Nairobi with 100,000 inhabitants, had many of the ingredients for a political explosion similar to those that rocked…
  9. Veld fires 'flame' Zimbabwe's…16/05Over the years, Zimbabwe has experienced the scourge of veld fires destroying property worth thousands of dollars.
  10. Liberia commends ECOWAS for support14/05The induction training of pioneer Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Volunteers for Liberia kicked off in Monrovia, with the Deputy Mi…
  11. Vanishing Lake Chad puts 30m lives at risk14/05As you approach the Lake Chad basin from Maiduguri, in north-eastern Nigeria, the evidence of despair is telling.
  12. Heavy rains cause havoc in Kenya14/05Heavy Rainfall continued to wreak havoc across the country leading to the suspension of relief food in some parts of the country as most roads in Turk…
  13. Zimbabwe: Growth points lie dormant14/05The Zimbabwean government mooted the concept of growth points in the 1980s as a means of decongesting cities and towns.
  14. Sierra Leone improves in infant mortality11/05Sierra Leone has improved in infant mortality cases according to Save the Children- World Motherhood index 2012 report. The West Africa country descri…
  15. Zimbabwe: Resettled farmers fail to utilize…10/05Resettled farmers in Zimbabwe are failing to utilize land due to inadequate farming inputs and lack of resources.
News archive