Today, Africa will honour its illustrious sons and daughters who have distinguished themselves across the world playing or administering football in the last one year at the 2013 Glo CAF Awards in Lagos, Nigeria.
The awards are the most prestigious in Africa conferred on outstanding players, coaches, supporters and administrators by the continent’s highest football authority and bankrolled by one of the Africa’s leading indigenous telecoms operators, Globacom. During the prestigious ceremony scheduled for the Convention Centre of Eko Hotel and Towers, the winners in 11 categories, voted for by African coaches and captains of national teams, will be unveiled.
These include the African Footballer of the Year, the African Player of The Year (Based in Africa), National Team of The Year, Club of The Year, and Coach of The Year. Other categories are the Most Promising Talent, Referee of The Year, Legend of The Year, Fair Play Award, Platinum Award and Africa Finest XI.
Yaya Toure of Cote d’Ivoire and Manchester City Football Club in England who is the current African champion, is vying for the top most award with Mikel John Obi of Nigeria and Chelsea Football Club also of England and Didier Drogba of Cote D’Ivoire and Galatasaray of Turkey.
Opinion polls favoured Mikel Obi to pick the award for being a key part of the Nigerian national team and Chelsea team that won the African Nations Cup and Europa Cup in 2013. Some pundits also favoured Yaya Toure because of the amazing strength of character and skill he displayed each time he played for both club and country. African leaders, past and present football icons will converge to witness the coronation of Africa’s best football assets. Globacom has been sponsoring the annual CAF Awards since 2005.