International Football
HOW AND WHY MUSA, IGHALO AND IWOBI LOST OUT IN AFRICAN FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR CONTEST
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
The CAF Awards 2018 is over. Nigeria’s only mark at the colourful ceremony in Dakar Senegal was the winning of the national women’s team of the year award. In the other more elevating awards, Nigeria and Nigerians were confined to the status of anonymity.
The most prestigious of the awards is that of the Africa Footballer of the Year which was expectedly won by the rave of the moment, Mohamed Salah of Egypt and Liverpool.
In the first shortlist of 34 players, there were three Nigerians – Ahmed Musa, Odion Ighalo and Alex Iwobi.
First to be eliminated was Musa who could not make it to the next stage on December 14, 2018 when the list was pruned to 10. At that stage, it was the 18-man Technical and Development Committee of CAF that decided.
Among them is Nigeria’s Ahmed Yusuf who did not vote. His not voting could not be because there were Nigerian candidates as other members of the committee also have their nationals short listed.
The only vote that Ahmed Musa got was from Alshelmani Abdulhakimamg of Libya. He gave Musa full mark of five. That was the only mark that Musa got.
While Musa had five points, Egypt’s Mohamed Salah had 54. Sadio Mane was a distant second with 31 while Aubameyang was third with 18.
Nigeria’s Odion Igalo had no vote at all from the members of the Technical and Development Committee.
He was not alone in that category. Eight other players also scored blank.
Iwobi got into the second stage of the poll having obtained nine points to rank fifth among the initial 34. His votes were from Hazem Imam of Egypt who gave him three points while the duo of Malouche Belhassan of Tunisia and Fran Smith of South Africa each awarded him two points.
Iwobi got a point each from the duo of Uganda’s Watson Suubi Edgar and Korichi Taoufique of Algeria.
In the next stage involving the top 10 among the original 34, the coaches as well as the Technical Directors and captains of national teams voted.
Both Gernot Rohr and Mikel Obi each gave Alex Iwobi maximum five points. That helped in giving Iwobi a total of 68 points. But that was far below the 351 obtained by Mohamed Salah and 293 of Sadio Mane.
The last stage involved votes from the designated media men, legends and coaches of CAF inter clubs competitions.
Among the chosen 16 media men, only two voted for Iwobi. They are Ayotunde Adelakun, a member of Gernot Rohr’s backroom staff and Mondher Chaouachi, the head of press and communication of Esperance of Tunisia.
While Adelakun expectedly gave Iwobi his maximum point of five, Chaouachi ranked the Nigerian second and gave him four points to put his total at nine.
At that stage, Salah was already coasting home with 70 points, also profiting from Chaouachi’s five and Adelakun’s three.
Among the 10 legends that voted, there were three Nigerians – Daniel Amokachi, Mercy Akide and Perpetua Nkwocha. Daniel Amokachi did not vote for Alex Iwobi. His votes were for Mohamed Salah –five; Aubameyang – four and Sadio Mane – three.
Mercy Akide voted Iwobi as third, given him three marks while offering Salah the maximum five and Mane had four.
Perpetua Nkwocha voted similarly. She gave Iwobi three points, Salah had five, and Mane got four from her.
Iwobi got 12 points from the legends as against 50 by Salah and 31 of Mane. Apart from the six points that Iwobi got from Akide and Nkwocha, the other half came from three points from Ghana’s Black Queens’ captain, Adjoa Bayor, two points from Mark Fish of South Africa and a point from Patrick Mboma of Cameroon.
The last sets of voters were coaches of the quarter-finalists of the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup in 2018. They were 16 in all. The coach of Enyimba did not vote for Alex Iwobi. Rather, his votes were for: Salah (five points), Mane (four points), Aubamayang (three points), Mehdi Benatia (Morocco & Juventus (two points) and Riyad Mahrez (Algeria & Manchester City) had a point.
Overall, Iwobi had 100 points when all points scored were summed up. That put him fifth behind Salah (567), Mane (440), Riyad Mahrez (193) and Mehdi Benatia (105).
Representatives from four national players’ unions on Thursday launched a new global organisation in Madrid, which they say will strengthen footballers’ rights and improve dialogue with governing bodies.
Opening a new front in the battle over who speaks for players, the International Footballers’ Association (AIF) was unveiled, with David Aganzo, president of Spain’s Association of Footballers (AFE) and a former head of the global union FIFPRO, appointed to lead the organisation.
Players’ unions from Brazil, Mexico and Switzerland were also represented.
The initiative drew a swift rebuke from FIFPRO, which said in a statement that Aganzo was acting out of self-interest and aligning himself with organisations linked to football governing bodies, as well as groups expelled from FIFPRO over alleged mismanagement.
Aganzo rejected the criticism, saying he “will not seek confrontation with FIFPRO”.
The launch comes amid strained relations between players’ unions and football authorities, particularly over the expanding international match calendar.
Relations between FIFA and FIFPRO deteriorated in 2024 after the union lodged a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that the global governing body was abusing its dominant position by adding competitions without sufficient consultation.
Aganzo denied suggestions that the new initiative was backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, but said “direct dialogue with FIFA” was essential.
AFE’s Extraordinary General Assembly approved the initiative in February with 99.8% of votes cast in favour of spearheading the creation of the AIF.
The same assembly also backed AFE’s withdrawal from FIFPRO, citing what it described as a “complete lack of transparency, as well as its total lack of dialogue with international bodies.”
“We represent over 30,000 footballers, and we come here with a new model aimed at safeguarding players’ rights and facilitating direct communication with all international bodies,” Aganzo told reporters.
“We are in contact with 15 to 20 unions already who were very aware of this moment and waiting for this announcement to make their move and join our initiative.”
He declined to identify any unions beyond those present.
Asked about a report that a senior envoy to U.S. President Donald Trump had urged FIFA to replace Iran with Italy at the upcoming World Cup, Aganzo urged caution.
“These are more political issues; on April 30th, I’ll be speaking to Gianni (Infantino) at the FIFA Congress, and we will discuss those things,” Aganzo said.
“People who want to go to the World Cup have to earn their place on sporting merit.”
-Reuters
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A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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