Africa Anticipates As Glo/CAF Awards Take Center-Stage

 Yomi Kazeem Careers & Education, Leaders, Leadership, Sports

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VENTURES AFRICA – After a long year of varying achievements, African footballers are set to be recognized at a gala night expected to be full of glitz and glamour. The event billed as the ‘Oscars of African Football’ will see the crowning of the African Footballer of the Year- the most coveted individual prize on the continent.
The annual award is in its 23rd year having kicked off in 1992 and CAF have done a credible job of making into a commercially viable entity which has become attractive to corporate Africa. Validating this fact, Nigerian telecommunication giants, Globacom has sponsored the annual awards Gala since 2005 and have keenly sought to leverage on its massive popularity by engaging in large-scale multi-media drives and social media campaigns as well as fan engagement activities and promotions.
While the sponsors play a key role, the main attraction at the event will be the potential winners of the awards as Africa’s finest football personnel converge to honour and celebrate each other’s achievements in the past year. The three shortlisted nominees for the big prize- African Footballer of the Year- are Gabon’s Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Ivory Coast’s Yaya Toure and Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama.
With Yaya Toure supposedly the front-runner for the award, very few expect Gabon’s Aubameyang or Nigeria’s Enyeama- the first goalkeeper to be nominated sinc
e inception- to pick up the award.
Asides from the big prize, there will be awards for other categories such as African Player of The Year (Based in Africa), National Team of The Year, Club of The Year, Referee of the Year and Coach of The Year, Most Promising Talent, Women’s National Team of The Year, Women’s Player of The Year, African Legend, CAF Fair Play Award, Youth Player of the Year and the Platinum Award.
To ensure a diverse African feel to the event, there will be entertainment from various African music stars with Tanzania’s Diamond billed to perform at the event for the first time. Speaking on his expected performance, Diamond promises a true African style.
“Africa should expect to see the best performance of all time at the Glo/CAF awards because I have put all my life in music. Besides, our singing and dance steps that we will bring on stage will be the talk of the whole continent,” he said. Also expected to perform is the Soweto Gospel Choir and Nigerian superstar duo, P-Square.
The award will be held in Lagos for the third time after hosting in 2008 and 2013. Other host cities include Lome (2007) and Cairo (2010), Abuja (2005) and Accra (2006, 2009, 2011, 2012).
As we look forward to another chapter in the history of the Glo/CAF awards, here is a rundown of all the prior winners of the prestigious prize since inception in 1992.
Awards winners
1992 Abedi Ayew Pele (Ghana)
1993 Rashidi Yekini (Nigeria)
1994 Emmanuel Amunike (Nigeria)
1995 George Weah (Liberia)
1996 Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria)
1997 Victor Ikpeba (Nigeria)
1998 Mustapha Hadji (Morocco)
1999 Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria)
2000 Patrick Mboma (Cameroon)
2001 El-Hadji Diouf (Senegal)
2002 El Hadji Diouf (Senegal)
2003 Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon)
2004 Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon)
2005 Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon)
2006 Didier Drogba (Côte D’ivoire)
2007 Frederic Kanoute (Mali)
2008 Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo)
2009 Didier Drogba (Côte D’ivoire)
2010 Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon)
2011 Yaya Toure (Côte D’ivoire)
2012 Yaya Toure (Côte D’ivoire)
2013 Yaya Toure (Côte D’ivoire)
Nigeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast are the countries with most recipients of the award with five winners each while Senegal have two awards. The quartet of Ghana, Mali, Morocco and Togo all have one award each. By region, West Africa boasts the most winners with 15 awards while Central Africa has five awards solely due to Cameroon’s exploits while North Africa has one award courtesy Morocco.