The time has come to take stock of Africa’s top footballing talents once again, with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) unveiling a 30-man shortlist for the award given to the continent’s best player over the last year.
The sheer number of nominees suggests Africa has a wealth of top-performing players spanning the globe, but a great deal of the inclusions are unnecessary and others are just risible. The build-up to the award always opens with 30 possible winners, as all of Africa’s key footballing nations invariably get at least one nominee.
The shortlist makes for curious reading. Medhi Benatia, for example, continues to struggle for form and fitness for Juventus and Morocco and can barely string five straight games together. His reputation, it seems, has seen him named among Africa’s best. Wahbi Khazri and Aymen Abdennour make the shortlist as the Tunisian representation, and it is hard to decide which inclusion is more incredulous.
The deadweight on the list is plentiful and by the time it is whittled down to five, and then three, the usual favourites will emerge.
What makes the shortlist for 2016 interesting, though, is that despite those nominated through prestige and reputation Yaya Toure is conspicuously missing. The last time this happened was in 2010, when Samuel Eto’o won the last of his four gongs, a record Toure equalled in 2014.
Other names includes Nigerian stars like John Mikel Obi, Kelechi Inhenacho, Alex Nwobi
Source: goal.com
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