Drogba Wins Africa Player Of The Year Award

FINALLY, Drogba the new African king of football!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

---------------------

Drogba Wins Africa Player Of The Year Award

Ivorian striker Didier Drogba was named 2006 African Footballer of the Year on Thursday night at an award ceremony in Accra.

He edged out Ghana's Micheal Essien of Chelsea and Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o to deny the Barcelona marksman a record fourth successive award.

Drogba, 28, took his country to the African Nations Cup final where they were beaten on penalties by hosts Egypt in the final.

Ivory Coast also reached the finals of the World Cup for the first time last year while Drogba won the English Premier League with his club side.

Chelsea team mate Essien finished third for the second consecutive year in the poll of Africa's 53 national team coaches.

Last year, Eto'o pipped Drogba by two votes in the closest race in the award's 36-year history.

Drogba this time secured 79 votes against Eto'o's 74. Ghana midfielder Essien polled 36 votes as coaches gave three points to their first choice, two to their second pick and one point to their third.

The Abidjan-born striker spent much of his youth in France where he played for Le Mans, Guingamp and Olympique Marseille before moving to Chelsea in 2004.

Essien, whose appearance attracted thousands to the city stadium in Accra, had an outstanding campaign as debutants Ghana reached the last 16 of the World Cup in Germany.

In other awards on Thursday, Olympique Marseille defender Taye Taiwo (Nigeria) was named best young African footballer while Ghana were chosen as international team of the year. Egypt's Al Ahli took the club prize and their Portuguese boss Manuel Jose was coach of the year.

Following is the full list:

Winners of Glo-CAF Awards 2006: 2006 African Player of the Year Award Drogba Didier Ivory Coast, ChelseaInter-Club Player of the year 2006 Abou Treka Mohamed (Ahly, Egypt), National Team of the year 2006 Ghana Club of the year 2006 Al Ahly (Egypt), Young player of the year 2006 Taiwo Taye (Nigeria, Olympique de Marseille), Women Footballer of the year 2006 Cynthia Uwak (Nigeria), Coach of the year 2006 Manuel Jos (El Ahly, Egypt).

© 2007 DPA


To read more, check this article on allAfrica:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200703020027.html

drogba!......enough said!

Drogba desverved it...He really worked hard for it. Not just as a striker but as a team player. We all can see how he moves from forward to Mid field and sometimes gets back to help in the defence line......More grease to his elbows

Good for a change even though I wish Eto'o got it.