AMAVUBI Stars’ interim coach Eric Nshimiyimana has expressed his desire to see Cameroonian Samuel Eto’O win this year’s Glo-CAF Player of the Year Award.
AMAVUBI Stars’ interim coach Eric Nshimiyimana has expressed his desire to see Cameroonian Samuel Eto’O win this year’s Glo-CAF Player of the Year Award.
Nshimiyimana is among head coaches National Associations affiliated to CAF who will decide by vote this year’s player of the year taking into consideration the performance of each shortlisted nominee during the year under review.
The nominees for the Glo-CAF Player of the Year 2009 are Michael Essien (Ghana and Chelsea), Samuel Eto’O (Cameroon and Inter Milan), Didier Drogba (Cote d’Ivoire and Chelsea) Seydou Keita (Mali and Barcelona) and Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire and Barcelona).
The eventual winner will be announced at the Awards Gala fixed for February 25, 2010 at a yet to be determined venue.
"I will vote for Eto’O because of his excellent brilliance in scoring goals. He scored and guided Barcelona to this year’s Uefa Champions League final against Manchester United thus completing a treble for the Spanish club,” Nshimiyimana said.
Eto’O scored over 100 goals in five seasons with Barcelona before joining Inter Milan last summer. As a member of the Cameroon national team, he was a part of the squad that won the 2000 Olympic tournament; he has participated in two World Cups and five African Nations Cups (being champion twice), and is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the African Nations Cup, with 16 goals.
The striker was handed the captain’s armband by new Cameroon coach Paul Le Guen and he played an integral role in the qualification for the first ever World Cup to be staged on African soil, next year in South Africa and the Orange Africa Cup of Nations.
With his trio of wins in 2003, 2004 and 2005, the Cameroon striker is currently tied for all time African Player of the Year awards with the legendary duo of George Weah and Abedi Pele. If Eto’O takes the 2009 award he’ll be out on his own as a four-time African Player of the Year award winner.
Togo and Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor was crowned the Glo-CAF Player of the Year 2008.
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