Kuffour favourite for African award

Samuel Kuffour looks favourite to pick up the African Player of the Year award after handing his club Bayern Munich the Intercontinental Cup.

Any shred of doubt about the Ghanaian being named African Footballer of the Year was squashed by the player himself in Tokyo yesterday after he scored Bayern's winner in extra time to give the Bavarian club the Toyota Cup. The 25-year-old defender and Senegalese striker El Hadji Diouf have been in hot contention for the biggest individual prize in African football.

Kuffour won the Champions League with Bayern last summer but has been inactive in the national team, while Diouf, who plays his club football for French First Division club Racing Club de Lens, has scored eight goals to shoot Senegal through to their first World Cup qualification.

But Kuffour has possibly made the Confederation of African Football technical and media committee's decision much easier with his Intercontinental Club Cup performance against Boca Juniors of Argentina.

Two members of the media committee, Mark Gleeson of South Africa and London-based Emmanuel Maradas, believe Kuffour is miles ahead of Diouf.

Maradas, the publisher of African Soccer Magazine, who is in the Far East for the World Cup draw, said: "When you consider the fact that Kuffour has been a regular for one of the best clubs in the world, has won the Champions League after missing out in 1999, and has now scored the winner in the Intercontinental Cup, he deserves it more than anyone else.

"I do not see what else he needs to do to be crowned African Footballer of the Year.

"He is the most outstanding African player in Europe at the moment and that is what matters."

Meanwhile, Gleeson, who writes for BBC, has already picked the Ghanaian as his man.

Kuffour scrambled the ball in after a corner kick yesterday to clinch victory over Boca Juniors, then dedicated the goal to his wife and son and promised to hand over the gift of a Toyota car to his mother, whom he described as the "best mum in the world".