Yaya Toure is African Player of the Year 2014

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has been named the African Player of the Year 2014 by the Confederation of African Football at an awards ceremony held in Lagos on Thursday evening. 

The Ivorian won the title for a fourth successive time shrugging off competition from local favourite Vincent Enyeama and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to the title. 

Nigeria held their head high despite losing on the main prize - by producing the African Women Player award, Africa Youth Player of the Year as well as the National Team of the Year.

However, it was the Ivorian Toure who stole the Gala night by winning the award for a record fourth time after previous triumphs in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

"It was a close one because Vincent and Aubameyang were impressive in their respective clubs and national teams as well. This time around, I would say luck did it again and I’m really proud about this.” Toure expressed how ‘lucky’ he felt.

Yaya won the title for a fourth straight time after polling 175 votes against 120 by Aubameyang while Enyeama settled for third-place with 105 points.

Nigeria skipper Vincent Enyeama who made it into CAF Team of the Year alongside CSKA forward Ahmed Musa but had to settle for a place behind Borussia Dortmund attacker Pierre Emerick Aubameyang refuted claims that his inability to win the coveted crown was due to Super Eagles’ failure to reach the 2015 African Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea during the post-award conference while supporting the decision of the Confederation of African Football to name the Manchester City star as Africa’s best.

Enyeama becomes the first goalkeeper to make the top three shortlist of the award since its induction by Caf in 1992.

Rivers Angel attacker Asisat Oshoala was the big winner in the women’s category by bagging both the Women’s Player of the Year and the Youth Player of the Year.

In the other awards given on the evening, Algeria playmaker Yaccine Brahimi grabbed the Most Promising Talent and Firmin Ndombe Mubele won the award for best African player based on the continent. 

The Full Awards

African Player of the Year 
Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire and Manchester City)  

African Player of the Year – Based in Africa 
Firmin Mubele Ndombe (DR Congo and AS Vita) 

Women’s Player of the Year
Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria and River Angels) 

Youth Player of the Year
Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria and River Angels) 

Most Promising Talent
Yacine Brahimi (Algeria and Porto) 

Coach of the Year
Kheireddine Madoui (ES Setif) 

National Team of the Year
Algeria

Women’s National Team of the Year
Nigeria

Club of the Year
ES Setif (Algeria) 

Referee of the Year
Papa Bakary Gassama (Gambia) 

Football Leader of the Year
Moise Katumbi Chapwe - President of TP Mazembe (DR Congo) 

African Legend award
Oryx Club (Cameroon) – winners of the maiden edition of CAF Champions League 1964
Stade Malien (Mali) - runner up of the maiden edition of CAF Champion’s League 1964

Platinum Award
Dr Kwame Nkrumah (First President of Ghana)
His Excellency Goodluck Jonthan (President of Nigeria) 

CAF Finest XI

Goalkeeper: Vincent Enyeama (Nigeria)

Defenders: Jean Kasulula (DR Congo), Mehdi Benatia (Morocco), Stephane Mbia (Cameroon), Kwadwo Asamoah (Ghana)

Midfielders: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire), Yacine Brahimi (Algeria), Fakhreddine Ben Youssef (Tunisia), Ahmed Musa (Nigeria)

Forwards: Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon) 

Substitutes

Raïs M'Bolhi (Algeria), Firmin Mubele Ndombe (DR Congo), Ferdjani Sassi (Tunisia), Yao Kouasi Gervais ‘Gervinho (Cote d’Ivoire), Abdelrahman Fetori (Libya), Akram Djahnit (Algeria), Roger Assalé (Cote d’Ivoire)

Culled from Lagos Breeze