For about two decades now, no Nigerian has won the Confederation African of Football Player of the Year award, thereby creating concerns in some circles

By Benprince Ezeh

IT has been almost 20 years since a Nigerian player won the Confederation of African Football, CAF, Player of the Year award. Kanu Nwankwo, a former Nigerian international, beat Samuel Kuffour, the Ghanaian who plied his trade for Bayern Munich as a defender, and Ibrahima Bakayoko, an Ivorian, who played for Marseille as a striker, to win the prestigious award. By the feat, he became the fourth Nigerian to win it behind the likes of Rashidi Yekini in 1993, Emmanuel Amunike in 1994 and Victor Ikpeba in 1997.

Kanu, who won it in 1996, came back victoriously after surviving a heart defect that kept him out of the game for over two years, to rule Africa again. The Nigerian striker won the award again in 1999, thanks to his exploits in his debut year for Arsenal Football Club after joining the Premier League giants in February of the same year.

He took England by storm with lots of goals and assists in his debut season as the Gunners challenged Manchester United for the Premier league title.

Kuffour, who won the Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich in 1999 and got to the final of the Champions League, where his club lost to Manchester United, was the favourite to clinch the award, but came second, while Bakayoko, the Ivorian striker, came third despite his fantastic season with Marseille.

Since Kanu won the award the 1999 award, only two Nigerian players, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha and John Mike Obi have made it to the final three.

Okocha had finished as a runner-up in 1998 behind Morocco’s Mustapha Hadji and third in 2003 as well as in 2004 behind Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon and Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba, respectively. Thereafter, another Nigerian player to make the podium was John Mikel Obi, who was a runner-up when Yaya Toure of Ivory Coast won the award in 2003.

Tony Akaeze, a sports journalist, said that the reason why Nigeria have not been able to produce a player capable of dominating Africa since Kanu is because the country lacks special talents unlike in the 1990s.

“Nigerian players since 2000 haven’t been particularly outstanding on like in the 1990s when we had many great players. We had players like of Rashidi Yakini, Emmanuel Amuneke, Jay Jay Okocha, Uche Okechukwu, many of whom were unable to get that award even in their peak.

“In 2000, many of these great players were slowing down in terms of ability and performance. So, they were no more at the level you consider them as top contenders. And then, at that point we also had some emerging talents from other African countries coming up, it became difficult for them to compete with these hungry and talented young players, with the likes of Samuel Eto’o Fils and El Hadji Diouf.  These were the young talents that emerged at the time some of the great Nigerian players were retiring because of age. That was why the likes of Okocha were unable to win it even though being shortlisted twice in a row.

“So, I think the morale is that the talents we have had since 2000 have not been that wonderful especially when you compare them to the 1990s. So, when you compare the two decades, it’s like comparing orange and apple, in terms of what can be achieved. Mikel Obi when he participated in the U17 world in 2003, he was seen as someone who could really take over from Jay Jay but wasn’t able to measure up to that standard even though he was very good as a footballer, but wasn’t able to realise his full potential maybe because of the position he played in Chelsea, when (Jose) Mourinho converted him.  Mikel didn’t quite turn out the way he should have otherwise, someone like him should have won the CAF award,” Akaeze said.

On his part, Tony Nezianya, a former sports editor of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, said that consistency is what Nigerian players lacks in their game. “We have not been able to produce outstanding players. Others from different countries have been consistent unlike our own players. There is no magic to it, if we will be able to produce outstanding players in calibre of Eto’o, Drogba, Yaya and the likes.”

According to Nezianya, for Nigeria players to get to the level of winning CAF laurel, they must be consistent and stable as well as be hard working. “These are on the part of the players and they should learn to comport themselves at club levels. On the part of the administrators, when they start creating the kind of atmosphere that will enable a country to produce the type and qualities of those players then we know that positive things are around us,” he said.

BE

– Jan. 11, 2019 @ 18:09 GMT |