GLO-CAF AWARDS: Oshoala, Iheanacho, Iwobi Shortlisted

Confederation of African Football (CAF), on Sunday in Cairo released top 5 nominees in other categories for the 2016 Glo-CAF Awards.

The release of the five nominees in other categories competing for different prizes is a follow up to the recently released list of the top five contenders to the  2016 African footballer of the Year and African Player of the Year (Based in Africa) awards.

The seven new categories for which nominees were announced included Coach of the Year, National team of the Year, Women National team of the Year, Youth Player of the Year, Most promising Player of the Year, Club of the Year and Women Player of the Year.

For the Women Player of the Year, Asisat Oshoala of Nigeria & Arsenal Ladies, Janine Van Wyk of South Africa & JVW, Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene of Cameroon & Rossiyanka, Raissa Feudjlo Tchanyo of Cameroon & Aland United and Elizabeth Addo of Ghana & Kvarnsvedensik were shortlisted.

The Managers listed for Coach of the Year include Florent Ibenge (DR Congo), Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic (Uganda), Pitso Mosimane (Mamelodi Sundowns), Nacer Sandjak (Mo Bejaia) and Florence Omagbemi (Nigeria women’s national team) while DR Congo, Guinea Bissau,Nigeria U-23, Senegal and Uganda were shortlisted for National team of the Year.

The countries shortlisted for Women National team of the Year are Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe while Sandra Owusu-Ansah of Ghana & Supreme Ladies, Franck Kessie of Cote d’Ivoire & Atalanta, Alex Iwobi of Nigeria & Arsenal, Eric Ayiah  of Ghana U-17 and Sidiki Maiga of Mali U-20  made the top 5 list of Youth Player of the Year award.

Also Kelechi Iheanacho of Nigeria & Manchester City, Naby Keita of Guinea & RB Leipzig, Elia Meschak of DR Congo & TP Mazembe, Ramadan Sobhi of Egypt & Stoke City and Oghenekaro Etebo of Nigeria & CD Feirense were nominated forMost Promising player of the Year award.

The Club of the Year has Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, MO Bejaia of Algeria, TP Mazembe of DR Congo, Zamalek of Egypt and Zesco United of Zambia as nominees.

CAF recently released the list of top five contenders for the 2016 African Player of the Year award and they include Borussia Dortmund winger, Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Enegal and Liverpool midfielder, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah of As Roma of Italy and Egypt and Algeria’s duo of Riyad Mahrez and Islam Slimani who both play for Leicester City of England

In the African Player of the Year (Based in Africa) category, the five shortlisted players include the quartet of Dennis Onyango, Hlompho Kekana, Keegan Dolly and Khama Billiat from the 2016 African Champions League winning side, Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, while T.P Mazembe player, Rainford Kabala from Zambia completed the list

The list of Top three nominees will be released by CAF in the coming weeks.

The winners will be decided by votes from the Head Coaches and Technical Directors of the National Associations affiliated to CAF.

The Glo- CAF Awards Gala nite will take place on Thursday, 5 January 2017 in Abuja, Nigeria.