Glo-CAF African Player of the
Year winner, Yaya Toure has said that he won the coveted award largely because
of his commanding and excellent performance for his English Premier League
outfit Manchester City and his telling contributions for the Elephants of Ivory
Coast.
Toure, winner of the 2011 and
2012 editions on Thursday night at the Eko Hotel, made it a hat-trick of
victories when he defeated Eagles midfielder John Mikel Obi to second place in
the 2013 award ceremony.
His victory surprised not a few
Nigerian fans, who had thought that Eagles AFCON success in South Africa and
Chelsea’s Europa Cup triumph were going to be enough to steer Mikel’s to the
highest pedestal of individual award on the continent.
But like he did in the last two
editions, Toure once again was voted the best player on the continent for
2013 by national team coaches, who gave him their overwhelming votes and
speaking to reporters
afterwards, the 26 year-old
towering Ivorian midfielder said it was a rare honour to be deemed the best
player once again.
“This is a rare honour to me
because it came I was thinking that maybe I will lose the poll but I think I
was lucky today. To be honest with you, when you see the best footballers in
the world, it is quite
tight and difficult to achieve
something with the clubs.
The case of Messi who has won
the award four times in a row comes to mind because he has not done anything
for his country but his performance at his club has been the reason why he won
the awards.
“I think the best player in
Africa has to be someone who is doing something great for his club in Europe
and Africa and I am very proud and honoured to win it”, added Toure.(Vanguard)
No comments:
Post a Comment