adminGhana was conspicuously absent from Thursday’s Caf Awards in Lagos, but Asamoah Gyan was the country’s silver lining.
His blistering form for club and country saw the striker emerge as part the official star-studded Team of the Year.
His good football year was also rewarded as the Black Stars captain polled a total of 187 votes from the total votes cast. These were voted by the coaches of the 53 football associations affiliated to Caf.
This total votes placed Gyan as Africa’s eighth best player – several places behind eventual winner Yaya Toure, and runners up John Obi Mikel and Didier Drogba.
The coaches are allowed to award a maximum of ten marks to the player they believe is the best on the continent amongst the top 10 nominees.
This maximum figure declines by one with respect to their preferred rating of the nominee. To expound Ghana boss Kwesi Appiah gave his highest mark of 10 to Asamoah Gyan with Yaya Toure, Jonathan Pitroipa, Mohammed Aboutrieka and Vincent Enyeama following in the order of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th best on 9, 8, 7 and 6 points respectively.
The Al Ain ace however unable to gather similar favourable points from the other coaches — ultimately resulting in his failure to make the final three-man shortlist.
Toure polled 373 votes to win the award — beating Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel who had 265 votes. Didier Drogba finished third with 236 points while Jonathan Pitroipa, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Vincent Enyeama finished the 4th, 5th and 6th after polling 202, 202 and 199 respectively.
2013 Africa XI
Vincent Enyeama (Nigeria) — Ahmed Fathi (Egypt), Mehdi Benatia (Morocco), Kevin Constant (Guinea) — Mohamed Abou-Treika (Egypt), John Obi Mikel (Nigeria), Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire), Jonathan Pitroipa (Burkina Faso) — Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon), Emmanuel Emenike (Nigeria), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana). — supersport.com
Online Reporter