Didier Drogba Wins African Footballer of the Year 2009

March 12th, 2010 | by: Daryl |

drogba 2009 african football of the year Didier Drogba has been named African Footballer of the Year 2009 by the Confederation of African Football. The award was voted on by all CAF member associations, who each picked their top three players (three points for first choice, two for second, one for third). Ivorian Drogba was the runaway winner with 92 points, Samuel Eto’o came second with 69 points and Michael Essien third with 42 points. Given Drogba’s form for Chelsea this season, it’s tough to argue with the votes.

This is Drogba’s second African Footballer of the Year win, after he collected the award in 2006. You could even argue it’s his third if you count 2007, where Drogba won but couldn’t attend the ceremony and so they gave it to Fredi Kanoute instead. Double D had pledged to “withdraw from all voting for CAF awards” at the time, but appears to have mellowed. Good news is that though Drogba couldn’t attend the Awards Gala in Accra, Ghana, CAF were still happy to let a representative from the Ivorian Football Federation receive the award on his behalf.

The Chelsea striker was the headline grabber, but he wasn’t the only winner. Other awards handed out were as follows:

Inter-Club Player of the Year (which I assume means African-based player of the year)
Tresor Mputu Mabi (T.P. Mazembe and DR Congo)

National Team of the Year
Algeria (presumably for their World Cup qualification achievement)

Club of the Year
T.P. Mazembe (DR Congo) (Winner of the 2009 CAF Champions League)

Young Player of the Year
Dominic Adiyiah (AC Milan and Ghana U-20) (Top scorer and Most Valuable Player at U-20 World Cup)

Coach of the Year
Sellas Tetteh (Ghana U-20) (Won U-20 World Cup with Ghana)

Fair Play Award
Al Hilal fans

Best Supporters Club
South Africa Supporters Club

African Football Legend:
Stephen Keshi (Nigeria)
Jules Bocande (Senegal)
Osvaldo Saturnino de Oliviera “Jesus” (Angola)

Platinum Award:
Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, President of the Republic of Ghana

CAF Best XI
Goalkeeper – Muteba Kidiaba (T.P Mazembe and DR Congo)
Defenders – John Pantsil (Fulham and Ghana), Nadir Belhadj (Portsmouth and Algeria), Wael Gomaa (Al-Ahly and Egypt)
Midfielders – Alexander Song (Arsenal and Cameroon), Michael Essien (Chelsea and Ghana), Seydou Keita (Barcelona and Mali), Yaya Toure (Barcelona and Cote d’Ivoire)
Attackers – Tresor Mputu Mabi (T.P. Mazembe and DR Congo), Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan and Cameroon), Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Cote d’Ivoire)

Here’s how that CAF XI might line up:

Kidiaba
Pantsil – Gomaa – Belhadj
Essien – Song – Toure – Keita
Mputu Mabi – Drogba – Eto’o

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Shazback

Hmm… Eto’o’s 2009 wasn’t too shabby though. CL winner? Check. La Liga winner? Check. Copa del Rey winner? Check. Leading the league he’s playing in pretty much for the whole year? Check. You can throw in a few other stats (30 goals for Barça last season in la Liga; scored in the CL final…)

Drogba winning the award isn’t too strange (he’s pretty decent too), but I’d have to hand it to the guy who got a treble. Even if he was playing with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and Co. I’m also kind of surprised Yaya Touré didn’t edge Essien for 3rd place… He hasn’t left Catalonia and has added a few more lines to his “trophies I have won” list last year.
Marco

Drogba deserved it, especially I will remember his 2009 for famous words “it’s a fu**ing disgrace!”
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org Rami

Eto’o was robbed. Drogba deserved it in 2007 and now CAF is trying to make up for their ridiculous decision not to award it to him back then. It’s too bad but sadly its hardly surprising coming from them.
Fally

This is a robbery… the trophy should have gone to Eto’o since he performed far better than Drogba within the period under assessment
claude

its showing weakness within the african fut ball authorities.how can drogba win when we all know its etoo.it all started from african cup of nations,to best player and soon the world cup.CAF,wake up.