Eagles fail to produce Africa’s best in 16 years

With the exclusion of the names of erstwhile captain of the Super Eagles Vincent Enyeama and the current skipper Ahmed Musa from the list of the top 10 nominees for the African Footballer of the Year award released by CAF on Monday, Nigeria have failed produce Africa’s best in 16 years.

CAF dropped Enyeama and Musa, who were on the initial 37-man nominees’ list, ruling out the possibility of a Nigerian winning the 2015 edition of the most prestigious award for African footballers at the award ceremony billed to hold in Abuja on January 7, 2016.

Nwankwo Kanu was the last Nigerian to receive the honour and that was as far back as 1999, during the 1999-2000 season when he scored 17 goals in 36 appearances for Arsenal.

Kanu was also Africa’s best in 1996 when he shone at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, helping Nigeria win gold after beating Brazil and Argentina in the semifinal and the final respectively.

Nigerians enjoyed dominance of the Africa Footballer of the Year award in the 1990s, winning it five times between 1993 and 1999.

Rashidi Yekini won it in 1993 and Emmanuel Amuneke claimed it in 1994 after Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations that year. Yekini also placed third in 1994 behind Liberia’s George Weah.

In 1996, when Kanu won it the first time, Weah came second and Daniel Amokachi came third. Victor Ikpeba, who was in top form for AS Monaco, won the award in 1997, with Taribo West coming third behind Chadian, Japhet N’Doram. In 1998, when Mustapha Hadji of Morocco won the award, Austin Okocha and Sunday Oliseh came second and third respectively.