The Confederation of African Football (CAF) have released how winners for the men and women categories of the Africa Player of the Year awards were voted for.
The voting pattern, which was released on CAF’s website, showed that out of the five Nigerians who were on the voting panel, only Nwankwo Kanu and Perpetua Nkwocha had a Nigerian footballer as their number one choice.
Kanu voted Odion Ighalo as his Player of the Year, while Nkwocha voted Oshoala as her Women’s Player of the Year.
Kanu had Oshoala as his fifth-best player, while Nkwocha did not vote any Super Eagles player in her top five.
Nigeria had three other delegates in the voting panel, journalists Osasu Obayiuwana and Chisom Ezeoke, and Tunde Adelakun.
In the men’s category, Obayiuwana had Ghana’s Thomas Partey as his best player, placing Wilfred Ndidi as second.
He voted Oshoala as his third-best player in the women’s category, behind Super Falcons goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie and Nchout in first and second places respectively, while Kgatlana and Chaminga were his fourth and fifth choices respectively.
Ezeoke had Ighalo and Nnadozie in the third position in the men and women’s categories respectively, only placing Oshoala as her fourth choice.
She had Salah as her top choice for the men’s award.
Adelakun also had Ighalo as third in the men’s category and Oshoala as fourth in the women’s category, favouring Salah to win for men and Ange N’Guessan for women.
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Oshoala won only because of votes she garnered from coaches and captains of national teams.
This article was most recently revised and updated 5 years ago