Yacine Brahimi Beats Vincent Enyeama To Win BBC African Player Of The Year Award

Super Eagles goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama saw
his hopes of being named the BBC African Player
Of The Year for 2014 dashed after BBC
announced Algeria’s Yacine Brahimi as the winner.

The Porto winger beat Lille FC shot-stopper
Enyeama to the top prize after garnering more
votes in the polls open to football fans across the
continent for the first time.
Five players, including Ivory Coast’s Gervinho,
Gabon’s Pierre Emerre Aubameyang, and CAF
Player Of The Year Favourite Yaya Toure were
earlier nominated for the award on November
10 before the aforementioned were edged out from
the running hours ago, leaving only Nigeria’s
Enyeama and Algeria’s Brahimi to battle it out.
Brahimi, speaking to BBC after being crowned,
said "I dedicate the award to my family, all the
African countries and especially my country,
Algeria. This trophy is going to give me some
strength, the desire to learn and also some
inspiration for some great performances.
"The African Cup of Nations will be a huge
inspiration for me and I hope it can drive me and
Algeria on to great things at the tournament in the
New Year," The former Granada player said.
Nigeria has only won the award, which was
introduced in 2000, twice when Bolton’s Austin
Jay Jay Okocha won back to back in 2003 and
2004.