Super Eagles captain Vincent Enyeama has been shortlisted for the last three in the race for the 2014 Glo/CAF African Footballer of the Year award.
The Confederation of African Football released the names for the final picks on their website on Thursday.
The other players on the list are expectedly the reigning African Player of the Year, Yaya Toure of Manchester City and Cote d’Ivoire and Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who plays for Borussia Dortmund in Germany.
“Gabonese midfielder Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama and Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure have made the final top three for the 2014 African Player of the Year.
“The trio made the cut following votes from head coaches or technical director of the national associations,” CAF wrote to the media on Christmas Day.
Mainly outfield players dominated the awards in the last two decades until Enyeama progressed to this final stage. No goalkeeper has won the African topmost award since CAF completely took charge of the event.
Moroccan goalkeeper, Badou Zaki, was the last goalkeeper to win the award but the Moroccan won the award in 1986 while it was still organised by France Football.
The other Nigerian in the race, Ahmed Musa and Ghana captain, Asamoah Gyan, were cut from the top five list released last month.
The award ceremony will hold in Lagos on January 8 at Eko Hotel.
CAF also released the names of top three finalists for the Africa-based Player of the Year award. They are the duo of Akram Djahnit and El Hedi Belamieri of Algeria and ES Setif FC and Firmin Mubel Ndombe of Congo and AS Vita.
Nigeria is dominating in the women category. For the Women Player of the Year category, Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala and Desire Oparanozie were shortlisted along with Annette Ngo Ndom of Cameroon.
Oshoala also made the top three of Youth Player of the Year with her Nigerian team mate Uchechi Sunday and Fabrice Ondoa of Cameroon. Oshoala is highly favoured for both awards.
The trio of Clinton Nj’jie and Vincent Abubakar from Cameroon and Yacine Brahimi from Algeria made the top three of the Most Promising Talent Award while Algeria, Libya and Nigeria were listed for National Team of the Year award.
The award sponsors Globacom said in Lagos on Thursday, “As the Glo-CAF partnership hits the ninth-year we at Glo take pride in the significant strides our alliance with CAF has achieved in raising the quality and popularity of football in Africa.”
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