REVEALED: Why Yaya Toure Prevailed Over Mikel Obi At CAF Awards

Most Nigerians especially fans of English club Chelsea felt disappointed yesterday, when Ivorian and Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure, not Mikel Obi, was announced winner of 2013 African Footballer of the Year (making it a third in a row).

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However, according to the statistics, the Ivorian deserves the accolades based on his performances in 2013.

Let’s not get confused, the award is basically an ‘individual award’, so the football club you play for or the country your represent winning all the prestigious tournaments like the FIFA World Cup, Nations Cup, Champions League or Europa League might not have any bearing or lead to your winning the award. It is your personal performance that will win you the awards at the end.

Mikel Obi scored his first goal for Chelsea FC in 2013 Yes, Mikel won the African Nations Cup with the Super Eagles in 2013, played a pivotal role as his club Chelsea won the Europa league, represented the country at the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil and scored a beautiful goal against Uruguay and don’t forget by scoring his first ever premiership goal (after over 7 years in English football) in the win over rivals Fulham last October.

But the stats for the giant Ivorian Midfielder Yaya Toure totally dwarfs that of Mikel when they are both compared. Yaya Toure joined Man City in 2010 Toure won the BBC African Footballer of the Year in December and has been one of the top five players in the English Premiere League (EPL) in the last six months.

This season, he has scored 10 goals in 19 matches for Man City which is quite high for a midfielder, four of which are free kicks. He has assisted in 3 goals and is one of the players with the highest passing averages.

This season alone, the all-action midfielder has scored in all competitions – Champions League, FA Cup, League cup and helped his country qualify for their third consecutive world cup.

His club Manchester City did not win any trophy last neither did Ivory Coast his country but his individual performance surely did the trick for him.

Mikel and Toure are both midfielders but the latter’s game has evolved over the years and is more dynamic while Mikel has been one dimensional.

As it turns out, in most cases winning the trophy is always a collective effort but at times some players had single handed won trophies for their team.

Many were all hoping the Mikel who was flown in to the country for the awards in his club’s private jet would break the 15 years old jinx of winning the African Footballer of the Year awards for Nigeria after Kanu Nwankwo did it last in 1999. Apparently, Nigeria will have to wait for another 365 days.

37 COMMENTS

  1. I can’t believe you guys are talking of toure personal performance to win this 2013 CAF
    award. our own JJ okocha was denied award for his outstanding personal performance for Sam eto who performed well in club side, nations cup etc. am ashamed of CAF awards as they only favour Franco phone countries. Issa Hayatou must leave that seat for anything meaninful to get to Nigeria. I am ashamed and disappointed

  2. Am so dissappointd dat even informationng could publish an article like this..what rubish are u saying..what more dyu want from mikel dat he hasn’t produced..is all about goals n assist or how many goals does canavaro scored b4 he won d ball’on’door.i reserve my comments.

  3. What nonesense individual performance are you guys saying? when mikel n the so called yaya met in afcon where was yaya’s personal contribution? when JJ Okocha single handedly rescued Bolton Wanderers from relegation and was a kind of demi ‘god’ of super eagles, he was still denied the title because of eto’o. Hayatou must leave office before we can get the player of the year title.

  4. Most people commenting hear have very short memory. The truth is that CAF don’t have a standard, if it deos, our own Okocha would v been crowned at some point ahead of Samuel Eto’o. Am so ashamed of CAF. The award is gradually loosing its value

  5. Please Isah Hayatu if is not an inheritant office is time for you to resign because you call it african best while making premier league to make your judgement, you should have called it europian best. Enough is a enough for you to leave that office.

  6. Am ashamed of Caf n even d person posting dis trash,u all must be mentally insane bcos if u r nt u will remeber vividly dt dis same award was denied to jay jay simply bcos of club n country stuff,bt nw they were saying its individual performance n even as individual performance mikel did far better than yaya in d year 2013 n if u are talking abt his goals for club n country where does his so called goals carry him to.for d love of God let us appreciate what we ve.

  7. Dear fellow patriotic Nigerians, When J.J okocha was denied of the award everybody knew that CAF decision was politically orchestrated,which is unfair. But as for the current african footballer of the year, it is glaring; Yaya Toure deserves it. Putting to consideration the fact that is the most decorated african player in the world.Having been nominated among the best 23 footballers in the whole world. My people, it is not easy for any world-class player to make such list. So in my own opinion I think that’s fair enough.

  8. Too shameful of CAF, i think glo should stop d sponsorship. Nothing good could come out of Ayatou, he revenged the broadcasting right dat we fail to pay for the in 2013 tournament. Mikel will ruled the word. Ayatou must go, it’s not family inheritance.

  9. SOME NIGERIANS SHOULD QUIT FRM BEEN SENTIMENTAL PLS,YAYA TOURE IS BETTER THAN MIKEL,ETO IS THAN OKOCHA,IN YEKINI DAYS HE WAS D BEST,KANU MERIT IT IN HIS DAYS, GEORGE WEAH WAS D BEST BOTH IN D WORLD,EUROPE ND AFRICAN, IS HE NOT ANGLOFONE?THERRY HENRY,NEVER WIN WORLD BEST BICOS OF ZIDAN,MESSI WAS D BEST FOR D PAST FEW YRS BUT DIS YR I BELIEVE ROLNADO WILL WIN IT BICOS HE IS BETTER THAN MESSI,SO WHO EVER DAT WNT TO WIN SHULD SCORE GOALS IN HIS NATIONAL TEAM ND CLUB SIDE I MEAN GOALS DAT MAKE INPACT IN COMPITIONS.

  10. Am not disappointed in you people cos u don’t know what u re talking about if not, u said individual performance of player. Do you wanna tell me that samuel Eto’s personal performance outshine that of JJ Okocha 2002 and 2003 season. Better look for something meaningful to say and stop this ur nonsense analysis, and have u forgotten that this award is by voting, while it only favours french speaking countries. Do u people even know the yard stick for choosing? Its better you people wise up and don’t talk about what you are not knowledgeable about.

  11. i can not say am too disappointed bcos if u are to go by club performances yaya will out shine mikel becos club can not do without yaya while club can do without mikel . but in term of country perfoemances mikel is more better than yaya in some decades and i believes caf always go by club pervormances.adebayor won it bcos of club performances, kannoute won it bcos of club performance .so if i were mikel i will step up my game in club side by overlapping as well to get a goal and stop doing back passes. lastly caf sud stop politicing by awarding it to french speaking nation, this bias and unprofessional.

  12. Highly dsappointed in ds writer. Why wud u compare a defensive mildfielder with an attacking midfielder??? I’ve never heard dat dat an award is presented based on individual performance. It has always bn ‘ur performance towards ur club’s success in clinching cups’ so dnt gve a useless excuse abeg. God knws d best

  13. Sunny king ,stop saying. Rubbish before I bom you mother fucker ,caf also mother fucker ,am gonna make sure to kidnap the caf president and is allogation,bet it it with me ,yaya toure don’t merit it ,I feel bad about that,we don’t take performance to judge because obi mikel try than for the nation cup of africa,but yaya just score 10goal,I swear all people who is commenting pls think very well before u comment ,I will kidnap u I bet just to punish u people ,if u have any jazz do it now ,because am gonna do what I said fuck you all caf

    • Destiny may be delay, but can never change. Yaya Toure, really deserve it, despite am a NIGERIA, the truth still remain the same. Mikel obi play well but does not worth having the trophy compared to his opponent. i hope and believe that you will accept the fact.

  14. Mikel deserves more for christ’s sake. If an all year performance is still d yardstick he does deserve it again because he featured in both CAF $ FIFA competitions and did well in both, Featured in both English $ Euro competitions $ triumphed in one. What else can we say? I even feel that enyeama deserves it better than Yaya if clubside performance is d yardstick because Enyeama is presently d best keeper in Europe, he also was d best keeper @ Nation’s cup. If Yaya scored a mère 10goals Enyeama has kept more than 10 cleansheets dis season. CAF should re-orient d coaches on how to vote for Nigerians have been robbed. I see no reason why Drogba should in anyway be among d final three!

  15. You guys doesn’t need of arguing or something like that, I’m not a Chelsea fan but I love Mikel and Chelsea as a club..But to be sincere Mikel doesn’t deserve it.. they’ll rather give it to Yaya.. Lets give mikel one more year, He’ll won it if he need it.. He has to put more effort.

  16. Iread through ur so called analysis,I can’t see the Yaya edge over Mikel,is it the same edge Eto’o had over JJ okocha,Mikel was outstanding both individually and as a group,head to head Mikel outshine Yaya in AFCON,Mikel outclass Yaya in EPL so where did u watch ur matches.sentiment aside? Mikel deserves this award,nt bcos he is a nigerian,but bcos he was a beta player of the three in the year under review. Am the most critical of mikel performance and style,but last year he was on top of his game.This was another cheating on a country that countibuted to Africa football in pass 30yrs. Its time nigeria speak of all this injustice by Caf lead by that selfish camerounian called Hayatou.its time he leaves

  17. Rubbish, y nt enyeama, mikel n yaya toure.. If checkin in club performance as dey claim it is 4 mikel 2 missd d award. Y dint dey check on enyeama wo’s performance was marvelous in d eyes of d players n pple of french league. He kept 11 matches clean sheet wch passd d 1 of toure n won d africa cup of nation. So in d case of individual caf is confusd, jj okocha deserve such award in his own tym, he wasnt given. Caf is rubbish, absolute nonsense. Corrupt minded associatn.

  18. African don’t appreciate what they have. How can u tell me dat foriegn club performance supercids dat of african cup of nations performance in selectin african best player?.
    Almight Messi hv won ballon d’or(includin other major awards in europe) for 4years nw buh still neymar supercids him in south american best player for 2years nw in a row while he was still @ santos o. Not just okocha alone, aboutrika hav also been denied of d award simply bcos he doznot play in europe big clubs. No doubt I prefer toure generally ova mikel buh in 2013 mikel was I far more beta player dan yaya. Even to the fact dat yaya was subtituted in nigerian match against ivory coast(He floppd). Barcelona will neva sub messi in a match they need goal neida will madrid do so to ronaldo. In conclusion pls don’t kill urself ova dis award issue cos CAF is in africa and we africans ar still undevelopd(both physically nd mentally) and corrupt too so î†̥ will definitely show in everytin we do.

  19. A winner doesn’t quit n A Quitter doesn’t Win. Its obvious that u can’t traveled d road to success without a coma. Lay a good examples n let people compose article about u neither Mike or Yaya d award has been won.

  20. To God b d Glory. N thnx 2 som of u wu truly see tru d Phisica, if Yaya dservd it by goals in cup perfmans let him hav it no b tday. Mikel can now learn evn wif ur Humbleness, Love for wot u do d fyt Must not stop. A typical J-boi will do put His bst like Mikel did. Kip d GAME Alive chekwube!

  21. caf is rubbish..the truth is there..ayatou came like a thief in the nite and gave d award to yaya..is it a must we speak french or has premier league turn 2 caf league..wats d criteria…pls let’s face fact mikel is more dan yaya in 2013

  22. What you check is records and not rubbish performance, check Mikel Obi record in 2013 to Yaya, Yaya won nothing not even is street football league, Mikel has defeated Him in so many ways, both Nations Cup and EPL, so CAF and Hayatu should go to Hell.

  23. Make no mistake, Yaya Toure deserves the award again and again. He is simply outstanding as an individual. He motivates his team mates all the time. if the situation turns bad he comes forward to cause damage to the opponents defense and even scores. What does Mikel do? He basically makes back-passes and unwilling to take risks for his club. Intact, it was a mistake for him to have made it to the last three. He least deserve that nomination.Scoring less than four goals in 7years is a very very poor record. Nominating him is an error on it’s own. Toure is simply outstanding in every possible ground of comparison.