It wasn t even close. By a 74 to 53 vote margin, Togo and Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor beat out Egypt s Mohamed Abou-Trika for the best soccer player in Africa. The result dashed the hopes of Abou-Trika and his millions of supporters but it came as no surprise.
You would have to go back to 1986, when Mohamed Taymoumi of Morocco and FAR Rabat was the last player playing in Africa to win the prize. Ever since, the 53 coaches of African national teams who partake in the vote have given the nod solely to footballers playing in Europe on the assumption that the real test of an African player s worth is what he does in Europe, not in his home continent.
The award should go to the player who has done well for both club and country. If that’s the case then Abou-Trika has an argument nation-wise. It was Egypt, not Togo, which carried away the Africa Cup of Nations last year and it was Abou-Trika who scored the only goal in the final.
But at the club level, Adebayor has a leg up, scoring 24 goals in the Premiership, an achievement of much higher caliber even if Abou-Trika had scored 24 goals for Ahly, because that would have been accomplished in the much lower rung Egyptian league (Abou-Trika scored six goals in 2008).
Last year Arsenal made it to the quarter-finals of the European Champions League, which surpasses Ahly winning the African Champions League – if you believe European clubs are better than those in Africa – and Arsenal came third in the Premiership, an achievement which tops Ahly winning the Egyptian league – if you believe the Premiership is better than the Egyptian league.
It has become so much the norm for the African award to go to an African in Europe that the African federation felt compelled this year to come up with a new award to go to the best African in Africa. That went to Abou-Trika as consolation.
So for at least one more year, Mahmoud El-Khatib s local feat is sill intact, for he is the only Egyptian to have been voted the best in Africa, in 1983.
One way Abou-Trika could have won is if Adebayor had not shown up in Lagos for the awards ceremony, the African federation rules stipulating that if a player does not appear at the ceremony, the runner-up takes the prize instead.
Because Abou-Trika did not miss the gala in Nigeria, he did miss the friendly Egypt hosted with Ghana. The match was in preparation for African qualifiers, starting next month, for the 2010 World Cup. It was a good opportunity not just to practice but to welcome back to the squad Mohamed Barakat and Mohamed Zidan, recalled after having run afoul of coach Hassan Shehata. The return of Emad Miteb, Essam El-Hadari, Amr Zaki, Hosni Abd Rabou and Mohamed Shawki, who all play abroad, brought back moments of nostalgia for it was they who won for us the 2008 Africa trophy, and it is they Egypt will depend on if it is to enter the next World Cup.
They will also have to be at their best if we are not to embarrass ourselves in the Confederations Cup in June in South Africa where we are paired with Brazil, Italy and the US. Brazil and Italy played a friendly of their own on Tuesday in London, and in between what was dubbed the “derby of the world – Robinho’s beautiful individual effort, Júlio César s reflexes, the slick samba soccer and at times some assertive Italians – you could not help but wonder how Egypt will do against these two countries that between them have won nine World Cups.
Abou-Trika and company have some mighty tasks ahead.
