Senegal Hosts CAF Awards

Senegal will play host to its first Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards on January 23, according to the African football ruling body.

The annual awards have already been staged in South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Togo.

According to the CAF website, Egyptian strikers Mohamed Aboutrika and Amr Zaki lead a short list of nominees for the prestigious CAF African Player of the Year Award.

The other nominees are Togo's Emmanuel Adebayor, Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast and Michael Essien from Ghana.

Mali's Frederic Kanoute is the reigning African Player after Drogba was reportedly denied the individual accolade by organisers for not turning up at the awards ceremony in Lome, Togo, in the middle of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations.

This decision has put a huge question on the credibility of the continental awards that is decided by national team coaches of CAF member-nations as well as members of the CAF technical and media committees.

Winners of the various other award categories like CAF Champions League Player, Club of the Year, Best Coach, Young Player of the Year and Women's Player of the Year will also be announced in Dakar, Senegal.

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