Aubameyang scoops 2015 CAF African Footballer of the Year

Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been named 2015 CAF African Footballer of the Year, beating Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure and Swansea City forward Andre Ayew.

Toure, who was recently named BBC African Footballer of the Year for 2015, had widely been tipped to scoop a fifth consecutive award. But the votes from Africa’s national team coaches/technical directors ruled Aubameyang the winner with 143 points to Toure’s 136.

The 26-year-old is the first player from Gabon to win the award and the first individual other than Toure to win it since Samuel Eto’o in 2010.

Aubameyang has been on fire for Dortmund over the last 12 months, particularly in the latter half of the year when he opened up the 2015/16 season with 24 goals in all competitions. On the international scene, his Gabon side failed to make it past the group stage of the Africa Cup of Nations at the start of the year.

The veteran Toure was actually an African champion with Ivory Coast at the last AFCON in Equatorial Guinea, but his club form, while still very good, hasn’t been anything like as spectacular as Aubameyang’s.

Swansea’s Ayew came in third place with 112 points following his excellent year, which began in the South of France and finished in South Wales.

Aubameyang missed the start of Dortmund’s winter training camp in Dubai to attend the ceremony held in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, but will now rejoin his club colleagues in the middle east before German football resumes later this month.

The recipient of the award is decided by national team coaches and technical directors in Africa – with Yaya and Samuel Eto’o the most-honoured individuals with four titles each.

Aubameyang was also included on the African finest XI shortlist that had the trio of Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Nwakali and Azubuike Okechukwu on the substitutes bench.

Osimhen was named Young Player of the Year for his record-breaking feat at the 2015 Fifa U17 World Cup while Oghenekaro Etebo was named Promising Player of the Year.

For the African Player of the Year Based in Africa, Tanzanian Mbwana Aly Samatta was decorated, becoming the first from East Africa to win the coveted prize, reserved for footballers plying their trade on the continent.

Samatta garnered 127 points, ahead of his TP Mazembe teammate and DR Congo goalkeeper Robert Muteba Kidiaba, who amassed 88 points. Algerian Baghdad Bounedjah trailed in third place with 63 points.

Cameroonian Gaelle Enganamouit was adjudged Women’s Player of the Year becoming the first from her country to pick up the prize.

For guiding Cote d’Ivoire to continental glory, former coach Herve Renard was named Coach of the Year and ‘Les Elephants’ as National Team of the Year. Cameroon scooped the Women’s National Team of the Year prize and DR Congo giants, TP Mazembe, Club of the Year, whilst Gambian Papa Bakary Gassama went home with the Referee of the Year award.

Former Ghana coach Charles Kumi Gyamfi and Cameroonian Samuel Mbappe Leppe were honoured posthumously in the African Legend category. Edwin Gyamfi received the honour on behalf of his dad.