The CAF Men’s Player of the Year award is the biggest and most coveted price of the CAF Awards as it recognizes and celebrates the most outstanding individual talent in the year under review.
Over the years, Nigerian players have fallen short of the award by tiny and on some occasions wide margins.
Former Super Eagles midfielder, Jay Jay Okocha fell short on multiple times to bag the award despite being the favorite on at least one of the occasions.
Recently Victor Osimhen ended Nigeria’s 26 years wait as he was named the 2023 recipient of the award beating the duo of Achraf Hakimi and Mohammed Salah to it.
This post takes a look at 5 Nigerians that came close to winning the CAF Men’s Player of the Year Award but fell short.
1. Mikel John Obi 2013
The former Super Eagles midfielder had a brilliant individual run in 2013 as he led the Super Eagles to AFCON success in South Africa.
Mikel Obi also played an important role as Chelsea lifted the Europa League trohy. He also helped Chelsea finish 3rd in the Premier League that season.
Unfortunately, despite his outstanding performances in the year under review, Mikel Obi lost the award to former Cote D’Ivoire captain Yaya Toure.
2. Vincent Enyeama 2014
The former Super Eagles captain and goalkeeper wasn’t the favorite to win but had an outside chance in 2014.
Enyeama had a good year for both club and country but it came during a time when Yaya Toure was arguably the best player at Manchester City and the Premier League.
Manchester City won the Premier League and the League Cup that season and Yaya Toure was quite exceptional as he scored 24 goals in 49 matches for Manchester City.
Enyeama was unarguably the best keeper in French Ligue 1 in 2014 as he kept 11 consecutive clean sheets in the league during the first half of the season.
He went ahead to the Prix Marc-Vivien Foé for the best African player in the French Ligue 1 that year.
Enyeama was in goal for the Super Eagles at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and kept two clean sheets in four matches.
3. Jay Jay Okocha 1998, 2003 and 2004
The former Bolton Wanderers midfield maestro came very close to winning the award in 1998 – which is deemed to be one of the most controversial CAF awards given.
Jay Okocha played for Fenerbache and then Paris Saint Germain at the time and was fantastic for both sides that year.
The dazzling midfielder scored 14 goals in 31 matches for Fenerbache and 5 in 29 for Paris Saint Germain.
Moroccan striker Mustapha Hadji won the award over Okocha. Hadji had a decent outing for the Atlas Lions at the FIFA World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations with a goal in each tournament.
The striker scored 5 goals for Morocco in 1998 while Okocha was named in the 1998 FIFA World Cup reserve team.
In 2003 and 2004, Samuel Eto’o was the clear favorite as he beat both Didier Drogba and Okocha on both occasions.
4. Emmanuel Amunike 1995
The year 1995 had George Weah written all over it having won the Ballon D’or and the FIFA World Player of the Year.
No one stood a chance of winning the award over him even though Emmanuel Amunike had a good year at Sporting Lisbon.
Amunike had earlier won the award a year before as the second Nigerian to win it after late Rashidi Yekini who won it in 1993.
5 Sunday Oliseh 1998
Sunday Oliseh came third behind Jay Jay Okocha in the 1998 edition of the award but he had a very good year with Ajax Amsterdam in the Dutch Erevidisie.
He won the league with Ajax that year and scored five goals in 29 appearances. He won the league again the following year with theee goals in 25 matches.
Oliseh was also instrumental for the Super Eagles in 1998 as he scored two goals in seven matches for fhe national team.
He scored one of the best goals in the history of the FIFA World Cup with a monstrous strike in the 3-2 win over Spain.
