I start with a clarification. The Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) should not feel blackmailed by my submission here. Neither is this a campaign; it is a statement of fact – John Mikel Obi deserves to be crowned the best African player for the 2012/2013 football season.
I would not have bothered to restate why Mikel should be Africa’s best on January 9, 2014. But I’m condemned to do so, given CAF’s penchant for shocking soccer enthusiasts anytime the Africa Footballer of the Year is announced.
The urge to warn CAF has become expedient now that the draws and ceremony for the award would be done in Nigeria. I almost celebrated as if to say that a Nigerian will be crowned. But my instinct called me to order. I felt there was the need to highlight why Mikel must be the choice.
I’m not an alarmist. But I know that in the event that Mikel doesn’t play regularly for Chelsea this season, I won’t be shocked if he doesn’t win the award. I must warn here that the award for the January 9, 2014 is for African players’ performance in the 2012/2013 season. So, let no one in CAF come up with the crap that coaches and players didn’t pick Mikel. I’m yet to see a better player for club and country in the season in focus. Three Man-of-the-Match awards and one Most Valuable Player award tell the story of Mikel’s immense contributions to Nigeria’s glorious outing in South Africa.
Equally disturbing is the fact that there are no set rules guiding how winners emerge. The factors for picking winners are ambiguous and continue to change, depending on the issues raised with every controversial choice.
Bizarre results have brought forth winners that made CAF and its voters the laughing stock in the soccer world. The most laughable of such verdicts was the pronouncement of Senegal’s El-Hadj Diouf as the Africa Footballer of the year in 2001 as a Rennes FC of France player, at a time when Austin Okocha was the toast of the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations, which Nigeria and Ghana co-hosted.
It is true that Patrick Mboma was voted the 2000 edition’s Africa Footballer of the Year, which he richly deserved, with his sterling outing for the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.
But CAF’s choice of El-Hadji Diouf as the best player in Africa in 2002, when the guy was starring for Liverpool FC of England, was a great disservice to the beautiful game. I dare say that Okocha was Africa’s best player in the world.
Twice Okocha was voted the Footballer of the Year by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for Africans plying their trade in Europe, yet CAF crowned Diouf with lesser credentials, stating mundane criteria that stood truth on its head.
For some other past winners, insinuations suggest Francophone conspiracy, as if soccer recognises language or creed. Indeed, the numerical advantage of voters from Francophone countries has been discounted as the major reason for some of the ridiculous choices. This is not to say that CAF has not produced winners that are in tandem with what people expect. They have, except that they have been far as far and wide apart as the dentition of a 100 years old person.
It is for these reasons that one would be shocked, if Mikel doesn’t nick the 2013 edition. It could also be insinuated that most winners were goal scorers. This doesn’t rule out the fact that non-scoring midfielders cannot be selected.
Isn’t Frenchman Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich, a midifielder like Mikel, listed among the top three players for the UEFA Footballer of the Year award alongside renowned goal-scorers such as Lionel Messi and Cristano Ronaldo? The African continent does not have such players with awesome goal-scoring records as Messi and Ronaldo, except for another Nigerian, Emmanuel Emenike, who interestingly has just returned to the pitch. He has played top class football since the Africa Cup of Nations. He wasn’t part of the Super Eagles contingent to the 2013 Confederations Cup held in Brazil. Emenike’s loss was Mikel’s gain as he seized the opportunity of the absence the team’s predatory strikers to remind everyone that he was a goal-scorer in his early days.
Many pundits still discuss Mikel’s goal against the Uruguayans. He has been a regular with the Eagles since after the Africa Cup of Nations. The tale of francophone countries’ numerical advantage will fall flat because Mikel was an integral part of Chelsea’s squad that lifted the Europa Cup – Europe’s second best inter-club competition.
Nigeria may not have lived up to its billing at the Confederations Cup, no thanks to injuries to key players of the squad, but Mikel distinguished himself, seizing the midfield against Tahiti, Uruguay and Spain, despite its galaxy of world stars and acclaimed midfield generals. Mikel was Nigeria’s best player at the competition.
I hope that Mikel gets to play in the Super Cup game involving Chelsea and Bayern Munich. If he does, he would have played in all the big competitions in the world for the season under review. What else do the voters want that Mikel hasn’t achieved? But with CAF, you never can tell? Which African player has played in more competitions and lifted trophies than Mikel? I need to know.
No doubt, there are a few African players who did well in the concluded season, such as Cisse, who plays for Newcastle and his Senegalese counterpart, Demba Ba, who stars for Chelsea FC in England. But the distinguishing line between the duo and Mikel is that the Nigerian is an African champion and European champion, winning the Africa Cup of Nations and the Europa Cup in the same season.
Mikel towered over the incumbent Yaya Toure of Manchester City, at the AFCON quarter-finals game when Nigeria beat Cote d’ Ivoire 2-1. Indeed, the flashpoint of the Eagles’ soaring victory over the Elephants occurred when Mikel systematically removed the ball off the feet of Salmou Kalou, who had raised his right leg to stab it into a yawning net. What more can I say?
Clap for Oboabona
Godfrey Oboabona has taken the path of honour by publicly denouncing the statement credited to him, where he lampooned Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger.
That is the way forward, young man. Now you have opened the doors that you unwittingly shut with those uncouth words that you used against Wenger.
My advice to you is to ignore those Sunshine FC chieftains who want to dictate your next European club. No European club’s scout will come to Africa for a defender. They would rather shop for midfielders where they cannot find prolific strikers.
The World Cup is next year; so Oboabona needs to accept any good offer from teams that are in the European competitions. He needs to whisper to the big boys in the Super Eagles to drop his name with European club coaches.
Oboabona needs renowned European managers who are scouts for clubs to process his exit from the domestic game. This manager can introduce him to clubs where he can star for their reserve teams, who anyway play leagues like the senior teams.
His exploits from such reserve games can open a new vista for him. His reserve club may not like his game. But one of their opponents may recruit Oboabona to even their senior team. You never can tell. This is better than wasting time playing in the domestic league that is riddled with unpaid salaries and allowances.
Since Sunday, my phones have been ringing. The callers would like seeking to know what advice I would offer Oboabona after urging him last week in this column to debunk the abusive words he uttered against Wenger. I have listed some of them. I hope that Oboabona acts accordingly. He surely would not improve on his game playing in the domestic league. He needs to broaden his horizon. Europe should be his next bus stop. Oboabona should not go to Turkey or countries where the game is a novelty.
Thank you very much Oboabona for heeding the advice. And good luck.
