Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Glo-CAF Awards 2009: Top three nominees revealed

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Tuesday revealed the top three nominees for the Glo-CAF Awards 2009 at a press briefing in Accra, Ghana.

Ex-Black Stars defender Anthony Baffoe revealed the identity of the nominees for the various categories at the ceremony attended by Kwesi Nyantakyi, President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and other sporting dignitaries

The flagship award, African Footballer of the Year 2009 has Ivorian striker, Didier Drogba, Ghana midfielder Michael Essien and Cameroonian forward Samuel Eto’o Fils as the contenders.

The top three for other categories namely; Best African Player on the continent, National Team of the Year, Club of the Year, Young Player of the Year and Coach of the Year were also revealed.

The winners of the respective categories will be announced at the Awards Gala fixed for March 11, 2010 at the Banquet Hall, State House, in Accra, Ghana.

This is the fifth time cellular giants Globacom is sponsoring the annual awards which seeks to reward distinguished football personalities for their performance during the year under review.

Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor picked the flagship prize at the 2008 Awards Gala held in Lagos, Nigeria last year.

Top Three nominees (alphabetical order)

African Footballer of the Year 2009
Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Cote d’Ivoire)
Michael Essien (Chelsea and Ghana)
Samuel Eto’o Fils (Inter Milan and Cameroon)

Best African player on the continent 2009

Uche Agba (Heartland FC and Nigeria)
Mputu Mabi (T.P. Mazembe and DR Congo)
Abdelmalek Ziaya (Entente Setif and Algeria)

National Team of the Year 2009
Algeria
Cote d’Ivoire
Ghana

Club of the Year 2009

Heartland FC (Nigeria)
Stade Malien (Mali)
T.P. Mazembe (DR Congo)

Young Player of the Year 2009
Dominic Adiyiah (AC Milan and Ghana U-20)
Kermit Erasmus (Feyenoord and South Africa U-20)
Sani Emmanuel (Bodens BK and Nigeria U-17)

Coach of the Year 2009

Diego Garzitto (T.P. Mazembe)
John Obuh (Nigeria U-17)
Sellas Tetteh (Ghana U-20)

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Glo-CAF Awards 2009 rescheduled for March 11, 2010

The Glo-CAF 2009 ceremony has been rescheduled and confirmed for Thursday, March 11, 2010. The Awards Gala will now be held in Accra, Ghana, intiatlly schedulled for Dakar.

The change of date is also to ensure the attendance of all nominees pencilled for honours. It will be the second time the annual event is being staged in the Ghanaian capital after March 2007.

Cellular outfit, Globacom will be sponsoring for the fifth time the event that seeks to honour and celebrate African football and its best performing actors for the calendar year 2009.

Ivorian striker Didier Drogba, compatriot Yaya Toure, Ghana’s Michael Essien, Samuel Eto’o Fils of Cameroon and Malian Seydou Keita are the contenders for the flagship award, African Footballer of the Year 2009.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

2009 GLO-CAF Awards Top Three Nominees Emerge Feb 16.

The race for the 2009 Glo-CAF Player of the Year will be narrowed down to the final three nominees to be announced in Accra , Ghana on Tuesday, February 16.

CAF will also on that day announce nominees for other categories including Coach of the Year, Young Player of the Year, Club of the Year, Inter-Club Player of the Year, National Team of the Year and Supporters Club of the Year amongst others.

Suleiman Habuba, the CAF Director of Communications said votes from all the 12 members of the Media Committee and 17 members of the Technical and Development Committee have been collated for the announcement.

He said the nominations were based on players’ performance for club and country from January to December 2009 and that the nominations cover all African players in European and the domestic African club leagues. “Obviously, we have made tremendous progress in the process of selecting the winner for the 2009 Glo-CAF Awards ceremony as the five highest scoring nominees have already been forwarded to all the national team coaches of CAF member federations for their vote ”, Habuba explained.

The five top nominees announced in Lagos last December are Drogba Didier of Chelsea and Cote D ’Ivoire, Essien Michael of Chelsea and Ghana, Eto’O Samuel of Inter Milan and Cameroon, Keita Seydou of Barcelona and Toure Yaya of Barcelona and Cote D ’Ivoire.

The 2008 winner, Emmanuel Adebayor of Manchester City and Togo failed to reach the top five. The awards ceremony sponsored by telecommunications giant, Globacom has held in Abuja, Accra, Lome and Lagos .