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OJORO: Vincent Enyeama Loses BBC African Player Of The Year To Yacine Brahimi

Published

10 years ago

December 1, 2014

Super Eagles goal keeper, Vincent Enyeama, on Monday, failed to win the 2014 BBC African Footballer of the Year award after Yacine Brahimi of Algeria was announced as the winner.
The 24-year-old midfielder becomes the first Algerian to win the award, which is decided by football fans around the world.
Speaking after he was named as the winner of the coveted award, Porto winger Brahimi told BBC Sport: “It’s a big honour for me to receive this wonderful trophy. I owe it to my country, Algeria, and to all the people who voted for me.
“It’s also a trophy for the whole of Africa, because it rewards an African player. So I am really very happy.”
It was disclosed that Brahimi came out on top ahead of Nigerian Vincent Enyeama, Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ivorian pair Gervinho and Yaya Toure after a record number of votes were submitted from fans in 207 Fifa-registered countries.
Brahimi played for Spanish club Grenada last season and was named the best African player in that country, before joining Porto of Portugal.
It would be recalled that former Eagles’ play-maker, Austin Okocha was the only Nigerian to have won the award after he won it consecutively in 2003 and 2004.
Meanwhile, Enyeama was also shortlisted for the 2014 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Player of the Year award.
The 32-year-old Lille stopper, who made the list together with his Eagles’ teammate Ahmed Musa, was quoted recently as saying: “I have to thank Nigerians for their love and support. I am really grateful to them and I hope a Nigerian wins it this time. I thank them for helping me get this far and I appreciate their support.”For this isn’t fair, I think Enyeama deserved it more than this guy.