Amunike rues absence of Nigerians from football awards

Amunike believes Vincent Enyeama deserves to be in contention

By Ifeanyi Ibeh


November 17, 2010


Former African Footballer of the Year, Emmanuel Amunike has expressed his dismay over the total exclusion of Nigerian players from the shortlist of players for the 2010 BBC African Footballer of the Year award.

Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o, the Cote d’Ivoire duo of Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure, as well as the Ghanaian pair of Asamoah Gyan and Andre ‘Dede’ Ayew, are the five players that have been put forward for the BBC African Footballer of the Year award. Eto’o and Gyan have been tipped to emerge as the winner of the award come December 17; when the winner will be announced on the BBC’s African sports programme Fast Track.

It was a similar scenario a few weeks ago when the continent’s football body, CAF released its shortlisted players for the CAF Footballer of the Year award; a list that was similar to the BBC’s except for the exclusion of Manchester City’s Toure whose place was taken by the Ghanaian international Kevin-Prince Boateng.

In times past, it was common sight to find Nigerian names among the shortlisted players for the BBC award whose eventual winner gets decided by African football fans via text or online - the same went for the CAF Award.

Rashidi Yekini, Victor Ikpeba and Nwankwo Kanu, as well as Amunike are all previous winners of the CAF award.

Five years and counting

Former Super Eagles captain Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, even won the BBC award back to back in 2003 and 2004 - the only player to have claimed it twice since the award debuted in 2000 - but for the fifth straight year, no single Nigerian player was deemed worthy of making it into the final shortlist.

The last Nigerian to be shortlisted was Obafemi Martins back in 2005.

“I have to admit that I was surprised that not a single Nigerian was shortlisted,” Amunike, the 1994 CAF African Footballer of the Year winner, told NEXT. “I know the Super Eagles didn’t have a good year but some of our players did quite well and one of them should have been included by the BBC.”

Nigerian goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama is one player Amunike felt should have been included in the final shortlist following his impressive displays for the Super Eagles at both the African Cup of Nations in Angola and the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, as well as for his club side Hapoel Tel Aviv with whom he won the Israeli league title, scoring a couple of goals along the way.

“The entire world now knows Enyeama,” Amunike said. “He is now one of the best goalkeepers in the world and we all saw what he did at the World Cup and how he has been saving his club from embarrassing defeats in the (UEFA) Champions League.”

The shortlist was determined by a panel of experts across Africa who, according to the BBC, took into consideration individual skill, technical ability, teamwork, consistency, impact on results and fair play.

“Enyeama also scores goals and there are not too many goalkeepers like that in the world so I am really surprised he wasn’t shortlisted,” continued Amunike.

“The players shortlisted are also good but if you consider the impact of these players in their respective teams then I think Enyeama’s exclusion is a big omission,” added the former Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon winger.