Gabon
After missing out on the African footballer of the year award in Abuja last week, Gabonese skipper Pierre Emerick Aubameyang has received a consolation of sorts.
The player who plies his trade with German Bundesliga side, Borussia Dortmund has been voted the league’s best player for the first half of the 2016/2017 season.
Until few days ago, he was the best African footballer but lost the title to Algeria and Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez at the GLO CAF awards in Nigeria. He placed second with Senegal’s Saido Mane coming in third.
Aubameyang was endorsed as the “best” during the period by 238 of his peers. He has scored 16 goals so far in 15 appearances. Aside his peers, experts with the Kicker magazine have also endorsed his performances so far.
“The 27-year-old has simply scored with greater consistency and stood out even more. In short: up until the winter break he was standout attacking player,” the paper wrote.
The paper went on to laud his performances against European champions Real Madrid in the Champions League. Aubameyang scored in the game before setting up Marco Reus as Dortmund drew with Madrid and topped the group.
In June 2016, the player was been voted player of last season by the players union, beating former Dortmund player Robert Lewandowski to second place.
Football : Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang voted best player in the German Bundesliga pic.twitter.com/3WCWkaK6gG
— africanews (@africanews) June 1, 2016
With 19.7 percent of votes, the Gabonese international beat the Bayern Munich and Bundesliga’s top scorer Robert Lewandowski by 0.2% (19.5 percent). Third place went to Aubameyang’s teammate and BVB playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan (currently with Manchester United) who managed 12.6 percent of the votes.
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