Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure was on Thursday, 8 January 2015 crowned African Player of the Year for the fourth time in a row.
The England-based midfielder achieved the historic feat of being the first player to be decorated African Player of the Year for four successive times at the Glo-CAF Awards Gala held in the Nigerian capital, Lagos.
Ex-Cameroon star, Samuel Eto’o is the other person to have won it four times, completing a hat-trick from 2003 to 2005 and later in 2010.
The Ivorian eased past Gabonese forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama for the most prestigious individual honour in African football, decided by votes from Head Coaches or Technical Directors of the National Associations affiliated to CAF.
Toure, who previously won the title in (2011, 2012 and 2013) polled 175 votes against 120 by Aubameyang whilst Enyeama settled for third-place with 105 points.
Below are the full winners:
African Player of the Year – Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire and Manchester City)
African Player of the Year – Based in Africa Firmin Mubele Ndombe (DR Congo and AS Vita)
Women’s Player of the Year Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria and River Angels)
Youth Player of the Year – Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria and River Angels)
Most Promising Talent – Yacine Brahimi (Algeria and Porto)
Coach of the Year – Kheireddine Madoui (ES Setif)
National Team of the Year – Algeria
Women’s National Team of the Year – Nigeria
Club of the Year – ES Setif (Algeria)
Referee of the Year – Papa Bakary Gassama (Gambia)
Football Leader of the Year – Moise Katumbi Chapwe – President of TP Mazembe (DR Congo)
African Legend award – Oryx Club (Cameroon) – winners of the maiden edition of CAF Champions League 1964 Stade Malien (Mali) – runner up of the maiden edition of CAF Champion’s League 1964
Platinum Award – Dr Kwame Nkrumah (First President of Ghana); His Excellency Goodluck Jonthan (President of Nigeria)
CAF Finest XI –
Goalkeeper: Vincent Enyeama (Nigeria)
Defenders: Jean Kasulula (DR Congo), Mehdi Benatia (Morocco), Stephane Mbia (Cameroon), Kwadwo Asamoah (Ghana)
Midfielders: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire), Yacine Brahimi (Algeria), Fakhreddine Ben Youssef (Tunisia), Ahmed Musa (Nigeria)
Forwards: Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon)
Substitutes
Raïs M’Bolhi (Algeria), Firmin Mubele Ndombe (DR Congo), Ferdjani Sassi (Tunisia), Yao Kouasi Gervais ‘Gervinho (Cote d’Ivoire), Abdelrahman Fetori (Libya), Akram Djahnit (Algeria), Roger Assalé (Cote d’Ivoire)
Cafonline
Yaya Toure deserves to be Africa’s best player, this guy is gifted. He is not a mick mouse. Well done.Yaya. The fever rights to win Afcon 2015 are, Zambia, Ivory Coast,Senegal and Algeria
Isecond you Comrad Germistone
Zambia favourites? hahaha, no neutral soccer pundit is behind ur team. Be realistic
It was like that even in 2012. “Ako sulile ekopa noko”.
now ivory coast i respect, and i agree that we r not on their level. not sum ancient afcon winner,who havent had a player win africa player of the year despite boastingt of quality players.
Do u find pleasure in picking a fight. We Ghanaians wont respond cus we know better
Abedi Pele won the Africa player of the year 3 times
Well deserved, had an outstanding year,might just turn out to there year with the AFCON 2015 congratsYAYA.
Congratulations to Yaya Toure for a record breaking achievement, Am just sad that not even one Zambian has made it in the best 11, not even among the subs, intact the entire Southern Africa is non-existence.
Duncandinho!! This just shows that we are jokers.
Well done Yaya.
Yaya Toure deserves to be Africa’s best player, this guy is gifted. He is not a mick mouse. Well done.Yaya. The fever rights to win Afcon 2015 are, Zambia, Ivory Coast,Senegal and Algeria…
Well done YAYA TOURE,out of respect for ROK,uncle BOBS,positive thinking,KK11 and other sensible commenters,it takes maturity to move on.
all resistance and opposition by zambian bloggers to those midget brains that try to belittle us is not maturity
I thought you said you don’t insult on this platform?
Your continuos infantile tantrums on this platform makes mockery of some of the finest brains from Zambia including Ba ROK,Uncle Bobs,KK 11,amongst others.
You should stop this cry baby like attitude and learn from these elders from Zedland
For Christ sake it’s 2015 haba!!!
Is midget an insult or a diss?
Awe bane this was not fair to Zambia. Not even a substute player pa Africa finest X1? At least Kalaba would have been amoung CAF Finest X1
Lets be honest, this yr Zambian players have been real quiet, kalaba and co need to up their game (kalaba especialy has potential, but he aint there yet)
Congrats Yaya Toure.
We are talking Africa here brothers! Yaya has always been failing to help Ivory Coast win Afcon but able to help Man City to win EPL. I would have gone for Victor Inyama
Yaya is a brilliant player but this award should have gone to Vincent Enyeama.
It’s not easy for a goalkeeper to be recognized, if only perhaps Nigeria had reached the quarter finals of the world cup or had he been playing for Chelsea, Man u, Barcelona etc, maybe it could have been a different story.
It’s all about which league someone plays in and as long as you’re not in top three leagues of the world then it ‘ll take something extraordinary for a player to win this award.
Zambia? ….. We hear
tell me which ghanain player has achieved alot in england except for tony yaboah wen he played for leeds united
Imagine someone suggesting Wanyama. You don’t face fact that’s your problem.
paradox, Michael Essien is not from Zambia.
meaning we cheat ourselves that sunzu is africas best! the guy is average.! thats why hes headed to china. he has no attitude. and am still fuming about janzas team selection. truth be told we are average!
Will there be a time wen u will be positive in wat you say?
Zambia has never won a game against European opposition
Lol
@ paradox Ghana can boast of any pkayers achieving in europe not just England.
Abedi pele won champions league for marselle
Yeboah won the epl
Essien won epl, and champs league
Munatari won seria A, and champ league
Kojo Asmoah won seria A
Osei Kuffuor won Bundes liga and champs league
Kevin prince boateng won english FA cup and seria a
Not to talk of players like stephen Appiah at juve
The list goes on…
Lets here Zambias individual playerachievements
Ghana is better than us that is the truth no more no less
Yawn…a little too predictable. There’re a few names on the Algerian squad who fared way better than Yaya, for club and country this past year.
Dont get why ppl like gemistone and paradox keep fighting a loosing battle, I personaly admire zambia but face it, Ghana is miles away in terms of soccer development cus all facts favour Ghana. Ur country is up and coming so stop this equaling business, u will only disgrace urself. I love SA fans for their honesty, even they arent picking a fight with Gh how much more Zambia.
But how come No ghanain player has won africa player of the year since like abede pele times?
Abedi Pele won 3 times, check your facts
Zambia beats jomo cosmos 4-0 in practice match.
Good for u
at least our players are always nominated, what about you?
Simple because other players played better than ghanaian players, we cant win all the time.
U didnt answer my question paradox. List ur individual achievements in europe
there is nothing much except for kalusha bwalya, charles musonda, johnson bwalya, stone nyirenda. those r the ones i can recall
Kwabena dont mind paradox, he is a soldier with no amunition yet wants to go to war
we r talking abt those who have won africa player of the year, not almost won or nominated.
Abedi Pele 3 times
Paradox give the Ghanaians a break, they are our big brothers in soccer, despite them not winning anything for more than 3 decades .
duncan. i agree they r our big brothers and we r not on their level. but wat angers me is how they bilittle way below wat we have achieved
Let me try to come up with my Southern Africa best 11. Goalkeeper : Kennedy Mweene (Zambia) Defenders: Stoppila Sunzu (Zambia) Eric Mathoho (RSA) Anele Ngconga ( RSA) Emmanuel Mbola (Zambia) .. . Midfielders: Andile Jali (RSA) Robert Ng’ambi (Malawi) Khama Billiat(Zimbabwe) Rainford Kalaba(Zambia) Strikers: Manucho (Angola) Jacob Mulenga (Zambia) Subs: Itu Khune (RSA) Kondwani Mtonga (Zambia) Siyabonga Sangweni (RSA)Nathan Sinkala(Zambia) Thulani Serero(RSA) Ellias Pelembe (Mozambique) Emmanuel Mayuka (Zambia)
Duncandinho, this selection is questionable. You have included 2 players i.e. Sinkala and Mayuka who have been warming benches in Europe. Are there no top performers from Malawi, or even Lesotho, or Botswana.
Well done to Yaya Toure. Don’t think anyone deserves it more. Hopefully someone will be able to challenge him next year.
for inf Abedi won the African player of the year 3 times.
We dont belittle ur achievements, its just sometimes u over hype ur achievements take for eg sunzu being Africas best. The guy is good but not the best in our beloved continent. If u try to make urself or ur country superior, its normal for other nations who know they are better (with facts to prove a case) to counter ur statement.
If fans of Ivory coast, algeria, senegal, egypt, camaroun, tunisia were english spesking, u would have had more than Ghana and Nigeria coming on this site to belittle as u put it. No hard feelings but it is annoying when u overhype ur achievements. All the best in ur Afcon quest, may the best team win.
I am talking about Abedi Pele of Ghana
Is there another abedi pele? my earlier comment was adressed to paradox statement bout us belittling acheivements of zambia
Well done Yaya,you’re the best.
So why did zamfoot refuse to say abedi pele set the record.
ask them
all african seasoned soccer fans know this very well new comers on the stage may not know. We all not on the same page
@ positive thinking, that’s why I put them among the substitutes but mind you they are warning the best in the best leagues hey, otherwise if you feel there’s someone you know that is missing who’s better that them then you’re most welcome to include them.
The bench.