By Ian Palmer
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has been named the African player of the year for the fourth time. Toure was named the winner on January 9 and has now equaled Cameroon forward Samuel Eto’o of Premier League club Everton as the only four-time winners. However, the Ivory Coast international Toure is the first player to be named the African player of the year four seasons in a row. Toure was presented with the honor during a gala ceremony in Lagos, Nigeria. He will now be missing from Man City’s lineup for the next month or so as he takes part in the African Cup of Nations tournament where bet365 has Ivory Coast 7/2 to win it.
The 31-year-old Toure helped Man City win the English Premier League in the 2013/14 season as they edged out runners-up Liverpool by just two points. It was City’s second league championship in the past three seasons. Toure also helped City win the English League Cup with a win over Sunderland at Wembley Stadium and was named in the Premier League’s team of the year. Toure’s couldn’t help Ivory Coast in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil though as the team didn’t make it past the group stage.
Toure scored 20 league goals in 35 games last season and became the second midfielder in Premier League history to reach the 20-goal barrier in a campaign. The first and only player to achieve the feat was Frank Lampard when he played for Chelsea. Lampard is now a teammate of Toure’s in Manchester. The powerful midfielder also helped Ivory Coast qualify for the upcoming African Cup of Nations, which is taking place in Equatorial Guinea.
Man City was proud of Toure’s accomplishment and released an official statement which congratulated him. The voting for the African award is decided by the technical directors and coaches of the national teams on the continent. The other finalists for the award were striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Gabon and goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama of Nigeria. Aubameyang was hoping to be the first player from Gabon to win the trophy while Enyeama was hoping to be the first goalkeeper to capture the award.
Algeria was named Africa’s team of the year at the ceremony after the country made it to the knockout stages of the World Cup for the very first time and qualified for the African Cup of Nations. The other two finalists were Nigeria and Libya. Algerian midfielder Yacine Brahimi was hailed as the nation’s most promising talent while Kheireddine Madoui was handed the manager of the year award for leading ES Setif of Algeria to the African Champions League title. ES Setif was also named as the club of the year.
