Drogba African Footballer of Year
Reuters - Thursday 11 March 2010, 23:29
ACCRA - Ivory Coast captain Didier
Drogba was named African Footballer of the Year on Thursday,
beating Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o and Ghana's Michael Essien for
the 2009 award.
The announcement came on the Chelsea striker's 32nd birthday
and it is his second award, after he also won in 2006.
Drogba helped his country through a convincing World Cup
qualifying campaign in 2009, during which he scored five goals
as the Ivorians finished unbeaten.
But while he scored in the FA Cup final his achievements at
club level were not as significant as those of 29-year-old
Eto'o, who will have legitimate reason to feel he should have
won a record fourth award.
The award was decided by a vote of Africa's national team
coaches although the final tally was not immediately made
available by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Eto'o, who also had a birthday this week, scored for
Barcelona in May's UEFA Champions League final and also won
league honours in Spain before moving to Inter Milan.
Eto'o was also pivotal in Cameroon turning around their
World Cup qualifying campaign after new coach Paul Le Guen
appointed him captain in August.
Cameroon came from bottom of their group to top the
standings and qualify for this year's finals in South Africa.
Drogba had narrowly edged out Eto'o for the 2006 award by
just 79 votes to 74.
The Cameroon captain was African Footballer of the Year in
2003, 2004 and 2005, when he beat Drogba by only two votes.
Drogba's Chelsea team mate Essien, who was among the final
three candidates for a fifth successive year, has never won the
award.
The 2008 prize was lifted by Emmanuel Adebayor of Togo but
the Manchester City striker did not make the shortlist for the
2009 award.
None of the three candidates travelled to Ghana's capital
for the annual awards at which World Cup-bound Algeria were
named Team of the Year.
Algeria beat African champions Egypt in a sudden-death
playoff to reach this year's World Cup finals.