Chris Maduewesi
Member
Depending on which divide you belong,your preferred choice for the winner of the African Footballer of the year can only be the 'acceptable' right choice for the prestigious honour,if your 'candidate' clinches it.
Being an individual honour,it is always not so acceptable arriving at a general consensus of an undisputed winner;cue in the FIFA Ballon d'or award;it must always be contested.
With the parameter deployed in arriving at a winner,it is even more debatable. 54 African coaches placed their votes in order of preference from 1 to 10 of the players shortlisted(The first player each coach votes for gets 10 points,and just 1 point for the 10th player) so who amassed more votes was declared winner.
Now it boils down to who appeals more and to whom. If coaches of Eritrea or Djibouti(with all due respect) in their freedom of judgment chooses Yaya Toure over John Obi Mikel,would you blame them?
It is definitely whom they feel should come first for them or someone whom they have more affection for.
A coach might look at the attributes of one and mirror in his mind what that person brings to the team if he had the luxury of managing him.
He might think,one is better than the other,an all round complete midfielder,box to box and influences games.
Looking at the other,he could say he is good defensively rarely gives the ball away and shields the back four,but not really top draw offensively.
If I am to dispense with one of the players who do I throw my hat in the ring for? questions that could race in their minds.
What plausible paramater can be best used to adjudge a winner in a football year: laurels,individual brilliance,consistency,team abilities or all of them?
Well the out-gone year appeared to have been a straight contest between John Obi Mikel and Yaya Toure. Yes Didier Drogba made the shortlist for the final three,but many argue that he was there by virtue of his past glory and antecedents.
2013 in retrospect,John Obi Mikel towered above all contenders in terms of achievements. The albatross he seemed to have had was the trickle nature of his goals. One goal in 75 matches,totaling four in 300 games isn't really inspiring.
But if we are to measure with laurels,he is a notch above Toure and Drogba.
Toure out of the three,was the only one without a trophy in 2013. Drogba joined Galatasaray in January last year from Shanghai Shenhua scoring vital goals that helped them to the Turkish League title.
Mikel won the Europa League title with Chelsea and most importantly was at the heart of Nigeria's impressive display that saw the Super Eagles win the 2013 Nations Cup trophy in South Africa.
Albeit most people say that the perfect altar of judgement for all parties involved in the running for the Player of the year award was the quarter-final clash between Nigeria and Ivory Coast in South Africa.
A star-studded Ivory Coast team succumbed 1-2 to the Super Eagles,casting aspersions on the abilities of their golden generation.
Nigeria went on to win the trophy after a nineteen year wait,with Mikel playing an integral role,shaking off the unwanted tag of "not always turning up for the Super Eagles."
The three finalists are great players no doubt,but a breakdown of the voting system showed that Yaya Toure beat all comers to clinch the contest.
Toure was overwhelmingly chosen by twenty eight coaches accumulating a total of 373 points as their best player. Mikel who finished second,got the number one votes from only four countries(Keshi was condemned to vote for him anyway). But the other votes Mikel got came from Libya,Sudan and Zambia.
In fact Toure was in the running in that, out of the remaining twenty six who didn't choose him as their number,he either placed second or third in their rankings thereby accumulating more points.
Mikel was inconsistent in the ratings,being chosen as fifth,sixth and even eight by some coaches. Click here on CAF's website to see how the coaches voted.
This brings me to the argument of Anglophone and Francophone speaking countries. Ghana coach went for his own player Asamaoh Gyan,in second and third position,his votes went to Toure and Jonathan Pitriopa respectively.
South Africa and Ethiopian coaches all chose Toure as their number one player,which defends the stand point a coach chooses based on who feels is better.
So even the Anglophone speaking Nations went for payers they felt was the better one for them.
With the open manner with which who voted and how was displayed on CAF's website,it is safe to say that the voting was transparent.
"I don't believe there was a conspiracy,however CAF must educate coaches, technical advisers what it really takes to vote because the award is called African footballer of the year and on its website, CAF stated that the award is for the player who as impacted African football the most” said Dr. Larry Izamoje,Chairman of Brila Group.
He went further to add:“As such, it is not about what you do in the colours of your foreign clubsides but what you have helped Africa achieved”
“Africa had the nation’s cup and Mikel Obi helped Nigeria win it.
However on the same local radio station Brila FM,former Super Eagles coach Adegboye Onigbinde analysed how the best player emerges.
“There is no cause for bias in this case because people who are voting are selected from different countries on the African continent with the assessment a cumulative one,” Onigbinde said.
“When you talk about a player, there are a lot of things that you look into like intellectual fitness for football, response to issues, character, Psychological status, tactical, technical and so forth”
“It is possible for one player to be good in one aspect and be bad in another but at the end of the day, the aggregate will determine what happens” the FIFA instructor said.
Sampling the opinions of other notable Nigerians on the issue,former CAF and FIFA executive member Amos Adamu said: " Its not a disappointment,He should work harder."
Former Green Eagles player Segun Odegbami was a bit philosophical: " it was a beautiful show,Mikel is not a flamboyant player but 2014 can always be a better year.
What could be deduced from the above comments is that they feel Mikel was not cheated,and with all that was laid bare it seems a fair conclusion.
Yaya Toure remains the only African player that made the final 23-man shortlist for the FIFA Ballon d-or award. A strong argument for his endorsement as the best player in Africa.
Deviod of sentiments,putting into perspective that you were one of the coaches that voted for the best player award,who would have gotten your vote: Mikel or Yaya?
Photo credit: prphotos.com