10th January, 2014
The 2013 Glo-CAF Awards may have come and gone. But many football-loving Nigerians are yet to come to terms with the reality that Ivory Coast and Manchester City midfielder, Yaya Toure was named the 2013 Confederation of African Football, CAF, Footballer of the Year ahead of Nigeria’s John Mikel Obi.
With a total votes of 373, Toure emerged the winner of the prestigious award for the third year in a row ahead of Mikel who garnered 265 votes. Another Ivorian player, Didier Drogba finished in the third position with 236 votes.
Almost 24 hours after the award was held at the Eko Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, western Nigeria, Nigerians have contined to express their displeasure on social media over why home fans’ favourite, Mikel did not win the award.
While some of the unhappy fans had made known their sadness over the results of the award, decided by votes cast by Head Coaches and Technical Directors of National Associations affilated to CAF, via their twitter handles, others had gone on facebook to express their displeasure.
According to a fan, Shola Donald Eesuola, who commented on facebook, CAF awards have lost its credibility since the turn of the millenium.
Eesuola posted: “African best footballer award had more credibility when Rashidi Yekini won it in 1993 cos his goals qualified Nigeria for her first World Cup against Abedi Pele that won Champions league for Marseille, while Amuneke that played just one match at Tunisia 94 and shone brightly for Nigeria at USA 94 was crowned African Footballer of the Year against George Weah that was outstanding for Arsene Wenger’s tutored Monaco… Patrick Mboma of Cameroon won the award in 2000 scoring a miserly five goals for Parma as a striker but his AFCON and Olympic exploit for Cameroon won him the award against Okocha, Babangida and Oliseh who all played for bigger and better clubs at that time… This is a glaring Francophone gang up, changing rules at will.”
Another unhappy fan, with a facebook account Mike C’Bayo Egbebunmi Jnr, shared Eesuola’s view as he posted: “May God in his infinite mercies deliver football & its followers from the claws of Sepp Blatter & Issa Hayatou.”
For Yomi Garuba, Mikel failed to emerge winner of the Glo-CAF award because of the gang up against Nigeria by French speaking African countries.
“What do you expect? All African countries have never been friendly to Nigeria. They always gang up against us even though we claim to be the giant of Africa. With lssa Hayatou at the helm of affairs in CAF it is going to be a long wait,” Garuba posted on facebook.
A facebook user with the account name, Akinyosoye Benedict Holluwarowteamean, also supported Garuba’s opinion with his post: “Francophone countries will always have the majority over the Anglophone countries.”
According to Tayo Adetunji, there should have been a another round of voting to determine the winner among the top three players after the first voting results emerged.
“I think there should have been a final voting for the last three players standing. The voting process is awkward,” Adetunji tweeted on his twitter handle.
In a chat with brilafm.net, Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, boss, Aminu Maigari stated that it was very disappointing for Mikel not to have bagged the top award.
“Well, I wish Mikel had won the award but unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it because we are not part of the electorates but I think it’s very disgusting that he did not win it,” Maigari opined.
However, some Nigerians, through their comments on social media, are in support of the award going to Toure.
While some believe the Ivorian is a better player than Mikel, others are of the opinion that Mikel’s inability to score goals for Chelsea has been his greatest weakness.
Tolulope Omotunde posted on facebook: “As far as I’m concerned, the award went to a deserving player. And all this talk about Francophone nations gang up are utter nonsense…..Sudan, Libya, Zambia and Nigeria were the only countries that voted for Mikel. Zambia are the only Anglophone country.”
Also, Omoniyi Ikuomola in his comment on facebook said: “Don’t let us to be sentimental about the issue,Yaya Toure is better than any player in Africa right now. And he’s one of the best midfielders in the world now.”
Former Super Eagles’ handler, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde, also believes that Toure’s tactical and technical edge over Mikel earned him the Africa Footballer of the Year award.
No Nigerian players has won the CAF best player award since Kanu Nwankwo won it for the country in 1999.
—Bamidele Olowosagba