13th January, 2014
The 2013 Glo-CAF Awards, which was held in Lagos, last Thursday, was a ceremony where the who is who in African football gathered to honour best players and individuals for their contribution to the development of the round leather game on the continent.
Though Nigerian players emerged the most dominant force during the award, winning most of the categories at stake, Mikel Obi failed to win the flagship CAF Player of the Year award against all expectations.
Nigeria won four prizes, making them to have scooped most of the honours at the award night. Teenager Kelechi Iheanacho went home with the Most Promising Talent of the Year, Stephen Keshi was named Coach of the Year, Golden Eaglets, Nigeria’s U-17 teams was picked as Youth National Team of the Year, while the Supporters Club won the Fair Play prize. Midfielder John Obi Mikel and goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama were named in Africa’s Finest XI with Keshi as the coach of the side.
Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, was presented with the Platinum Award in recognition of his support for football development in Africa’s most populous country.
Mixed reactions however trailed the Player of the Year award given to Ivorian Yaya Toure. Some Nigerians felt that Mikel, who won the Africa Cup of Nations trophy with Nigeria and the UEFA Europa League with Chelsea Football Club of England, ought to have clinched the coveted honour.
The president of Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Alhaji Aminu Maigari and some aggrieved Nigerians on the streets said, giving the award to Toure was disgusting. They argued that Mikel achieved so much in 2013 than Toure.
Other people such as Chief Adegboye Onigbinde expressed contrary view. The CAF and FIFA Instructor insisted that Toure deserved the award and that he saw no form of bias in the voting process. He added that people who voted were selected from different countries on the African continent. Onigbinde said that voters looked into players’ intellectual fitness for football, response to issues, character, psychological status, tactical and other technical details.
CAF says the winner of the award was decided by votes from the Head Coaches or Technical Directors of the National Associations affiliated to CAF.
What the NFF and the entire football fraternity in Nigeria should focus on after the nation missed the award is a total repackage of Nigerian football to make the game and its players attractive to the world. Mikel might have won the Nations Cup and the Europa League, but we should not forget that this award is not about a team but individual performance for both club and country. Mikel should sit down to look back at where things went wrong last year and begin to work on how he can improve on his weaknesses.
He has started well this season for his English club, Chelsea, by scoring a goal in an English Premier League, match. He should try to score more goals for the club this season. This is a World Cup year; he and other Nigerian players looking forward to winning the award should make sure that they put up outstanding performance in Brazil to stand a good chance of winning the 2014 Africa Footballer of the Year award.