As the year comes to an end, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has revealed the five candidates tapped for its coveted and prestigious “African Footballer of the Year” award.
This year the competition seem to be tightly and keenly contested by five of Africa’s great football stars : Demba Ba (Senegal and Newcastle) , Younes Belhanda ( Morocco and Montpellier), Didier Drogba ( Ivory Coast and Shanghai Shenhua), Christopher Katongo ( Zambia and Henan Construction FC), Yaya Toure ( Ivory Coast and Manchester City) . This is actually the second consecutive year Toure has made the list. The year has evidently been an outstanding one for all the nominees, with four of the players taking home medals.
Drogba could not have bid a better farewell to Chelsea at the end of the season after scoring the winning penalty to clinch the Champions League trophy for the first time in the club's history, and also scoring what proved to be the winning goal in the FA Cup final.
His Ivorian compatriot, Toure, was a key player for Manchester City as the Sky Blues were crowned Premier League champions for the first time – and their first top-flight title for 44 years.
A domestic title was also earned by Belhanda, whose 12 goals and all-round performances were a huge factor as Montpellier pulled off a major surprise to win the French Ligue 1 championship.
On the international scene there was yet another first as Katongo led from the front for Zambia, skippering them to a shocking victory in the Africa Cup of Nations, where Chipolopolo beat Ivory Coast on penalties in the final.
Ba fared less well at the Nations Cup, with Senegal going out of the competition at the group stage, but he enjoyed personal success with Newcastle where he ended last season as the club's top scorer with 17 goals, helping them to finish fifth in the table.
The winner will be announced on Monday, 17 December and African football fans have until 1830 GMT on Thursday, 13 December to vote for their choice.
You can either vote via BBC page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20257457
Or by sending an SMS from your phone to +44 7786 20 50 75.
- Text 1 for Demba Ba
- Text 2 for Younes Belhanda
- Text 3 for Didier Drogba
- Text 4 for Christopher Katongo
- Or Text 5 for Yaya Toure
You can also find profile information on this same page. For more updates and details you can visit the BBC Sport page.
