Abedi Pele won the African Player of the Year three times
Nowadays it's pretty rare to find a leading European club in any of the major leagues that doesn't feature at least one African player. African football has come a long way over the last couple of decades; indeed it's common now not only for top tier clubs to have scouts scouring the continent for fresh talent but the age that potential talent is imported into youth teams is becoming ever younger.
Historically speaking there's two key events - both from the 1990's - that can be pinpointed as the essential reasons for this change in attitude and massive amounts of progress across African football. Firstly the famous progress of the un-fancied yet highly charismatic Cameroon national team in 1990 all the way to the quarter finals ignited an interest in the potential of African football. This was then proven the case when George Weah was announced World Player of the Year a few years later - the first African to come close to winning the accolade, and a remarkable achievement for a player brought up in war torn Liberia.
Following this progress The World African Player Of The Year suddenly became a far more important accolade, and one which scouts and directors of recruitment started to take very seriously indeed. Following hot on Weah's heels were thousands of other players who migrated to Europe to play, and some went on to become world stars. It's this rise in prominence of African footballers that sets the story for the player of the year accolade which we'll now discuss. Incidentally, anyone interested in following the progress of the latest generation of African stars playing in Europe and further afield should check out http://www.golisports.com/ for the latest news and reports on their progress.
Trends With Past Winners
It's interesting to note with looking through the stellar names of the previous winners that the overwhelming majority of winners - and even runners up - tend to be very much offensively minded players who were renowned for their ball skills and goal scoring. Besides the legenday Weah we can also include former winners such as Samuel Eto'o, Abedi Pele, Didier Drogba, Nwankwo Kanu, El Hadji Diouf and Roger Milla - all of whom one the award at least twice since it's formal inception back in 1992. Even single time winners have typically also been leading strikers in the form of their lives - Victor Ikpeba and Frédéric Kanouté being a couple of many prominent names to have also featured.
Recent History
It's difficult to quite describe what position Manchester City star Yaya Toure actually formally occupies, for while often he appears on teamsheets operating somewhere around midfield in truth his game is highly attack-minded and it's not uncommon for him to score well into double figures season after season. While not a typical striker, before this year he had won the last four African world player of the year titles, and falls second only to Samuel Eto'o who has won the award an equal number of times, but also been runner up and third place twice each too (Toure has only a single runners up place).
Understandably this made Toure rather aggrieved when he recorded this second place this year when the 2015 award for African Footballer of the Year was awarded to the prodigious Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, largely in recognition for his 27 goals in 27 appearances for German powerhouse Borussia Dortmund. Controversially, this usually very respectful award was tarnished by Toure who claimed that his second place was farcical and an embarrassment to the entire continent of Africa.
National Winners
Over the years Cameroon has produced the most winners of the title with eleven wins and several runners up and third places too. Ivory coast trail on eight wins, followed by Ghana (6), Nigeria (5) and Morocco (4). Geographically this presents for an interesting split as besides Morocco West Africa tends to historically dominate in regards of producing winners.
