VICTOR ONE OF AFRICA’S BEST: Wanyama among 11 EPL stars nominated for 2015 African Footballer of the Year award

Harambee Stars and Southampton midfielder Victor Wanyama is among 11 English Premier League stars nominated for the 2015 African Footballer of the Year award.

The Kenyan captain will have to battle it out with title-holder Yaya Toure of Manchester City for Africa’s top football accolade. Toure, the 32-year-old Ivory Coast midfield general, has been voted the best footballer on the continent a record four consecutive times.

Wanyama’s teammate at Southampton, Senegalese Sadio Mane, Ghanaian Christian Atsu and Ivorian Max Alain Gradel from Bournemouth are the other England-based nominees.

Democratic Republic of Congo pair Dieumerci Mbokani of Norwich City and Yannick Bolasie of Crystal Palace and Ghanaian Andre Ayew of Swansea City also made the 37-star list.

Beninese Rudy Gestede of Aston Villa, Algerian Riyad Mahrez of Leicester City and Senegalese Mame Biram Diouf of Stoke City are the other contenders.

But there was no place for Manchester City striker Wilfried Bony, one of four African nominations for the 2015 Ballon d’Or World Footballer of the Year award with Toure, Atsu and Ayew.

There have been nine Premier League-based winners of the African Footballer of the Year award, led by Toure and two-time title-holder and fellow Ivorian Didier Drogba, then with Chelsea.

Togolese Emmanuel Adebayor topped the poll when playing for Arsenal, Senegalese El Hadji Diouf won when at Liverpool and Nigerian Nwankwo Kanu was crowned when playing for Arsenal.

Toure will be among the favourites again with the winner to be announced at an early January ceremony in Nigerian commercial capital Lagos.

The physically imposing star was part of the Ivory Coast team that won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea after a penalty shootout against Ghana. Midfielder Ayew, who has made a seamless transition from French Ligue 1 football to the Premier League this season, will be hoping to create history.

His father, Ghana legend Abedi ‘Pele’ Ayew, was voted African Footballer of the Year three consecutive times from 1991, but no son of the winner has emulated the feat.

The Premier League and Ligue 1 have supplied nine winners each of an award first staged in 1970 and won by Malian Salif Keita, then with French outfit Saint-Etienne.

There have been seven winners from the Spanish La Liga and four from the Italian Serie A, but none from the German Bundesliga.
Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Guinean Ibrahima Traore of Borussia Moenchengladbach and Moroccan Mehdi Benatia of Bayern Munich are 2015 challengers,
Aubameyang was runner-up last year and has been in outstanding club form, scoring in each of the eight rounds since the Bundesliga season kicked off.

Midfielders and strikers have dominated the African Footballer of the Year poll with no defender winning, and the last successful goalkeeper was Moroccan Badou Zaki 29 years ago.

Votes from national coaches and national technical directors in Africa will decide who receives the most prized individual award in the continent.