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NATIONAL Under-23 coach Callisto Pasuwa voted for Yaya Toure as his choice for the African Footballer of the Year award.
Pasuwa and Zifa technical director Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe attended the Confederation of African Football meeting in Cairo, Egypt, where the selection was done in December.
Ivorian and Manchester City playmaker Toure made history on Thursday when he won the African Footballers’ award for the fourth time in a row.
Toure was named the best African footballer for 2014 while AS Vita’s Firmin Mubele Ndombe was named the most outstanding player plying on the continent.
AS Vita played Dynamos’ Pasuwa in the Champions League last year and eliminated the Zimbabwe champions in the first round.
There were five finalists for the African Footballers’ Award and coaches or technical directors from each association were supposed to tick their choices. The first choice weighed five points while the second carried four and the third had three while the fourth had two and the fifth a single point.
According to the list from Caf yesterday, Zimbabwe had five points for Toure as their first choice with Pasuwa having cast the vote.
Pasuwa had Ahmed Musa of Nigeria at number two while he had Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Gabon in third place.
The former Dynamos coach believed Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama played better than Ghana’s skipper Asamoah Gyan. Twenty seven out of the 39 coaches selected Toure as first choice while few placed him either as second or third for his total points tally of 175.
Only Botswana, Burundi, Nigeria and Zambia did not vote Toure as a top-two candidate for the African Footballer of the Year.
Aubameyang on 120 points beat Enyeama (105 points) for the first runner up slot as Musa received the least votes on 78. Only Guinea and Swaziland felt the Super Eagles goalkeeper should be the winner.
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 Jonathan (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). — Sportszone.
Online Reporter