32-year-old Enyeama had been tipped as the main challenger to Toure in the CAF award prior to its announcement of winners in Lagos on Thursday night.
But instead it was the Nigerian captain and goalkeeper, who finished in third place and 70 points behind Yaya Toure, who has now won the African Footballer of the Year award for a record fourth successive time.
The voting pattern for the 2014 African Footballer of the Year has revealed that Vincent Enyeama finished third behind Yaya Toure and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Ivory Coast and Gabon respectively, reports SuperSports.
Data from CAF shows that Toure got 175 points while 120 went to Aubameyang and Enyeama got 105. Ghana captain, Asamoah Gyan and Nigerian winger, Ahmed Musa, who made the top-five got 94 and 78 points respectively from the coaches and technical directors who voted.
Interestingly, many pundits and football enthusiasts might find it shocking that only two coaches or technical directors from Guinea and Swaziland deemed Enyeama fit to be the 2014 African Footballer of the Year. However, 13 of those who voted including the Nigerian coach or technical director believes Enyeama was second best last year.
But CSKA winger, Musa, though got lesser number of points to Enyeama’s total, three of the voters picked him as Africa’s best for the past year. The coaches or technical director of Cape Verde, Nigeria and Tanzania voted for Musa as Africa Footballer of the Year.
Out of the 39 head coaches or technical directors who voted, 27 picked the Ivorian midfielder as the African Footballer of the Year. It was overwhelming. Aubameyang who finished second had just two coaches/technical directors from his country, Gabon and Botswana giving him full marks. Ghana’s Gyan, who finished in fourth got the backing of three coaches or technical directors from his country, Sao Tome and Principe as well as Togo.
Only Botswana, Burundi, Nigeria and Zambia did not vote Toure as a top-two candidate for the African Footballer of the Year.Last year Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel, came close in second place behind Toure.
Enyeama on photo-sharing social media portal, Instagram has already thumbed up the Ivorian on his victory. He wrote;
A very big thank you to my #SUPER GOD for bringing me this far. Without HIM I wouldn’t have been here. Thank you to my sweet wife and my DIAMOND. Thanks to all my family members, friends and love ones. Big thanks to my coaches and teammates, my fans and supporters, media men and women. I love you all. You guys rock. You guys are great. Thank you for all the support. Congratulations to Yaya Toure for being the 2014 AFRICAN FOOTBALLER OF DE YEAR. Bravo Yaya
