Two Nigerian players, Ahmed Musa and Vincent Enyeama, are in the run to win the 2015 CAF African Footballer of the Year Award after the duo were included in the shortlist of 37 players released on Sunday by the continent’s soccer ruling body.
The two players have been in blistering form for their respective clubs this term with Musa scoring ten goals in all competitions for his Russian club, CSKA Moscow, while Enyeama has kept five clean sheets in six Ligue 1 games for his French side Lille who are 12th on the log.
The list of nominees released by CAF on Sunday is dominated by Algerian players with six footballers from the North African country in the squad even though they failed to make an impact at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Ivory Coast, who finished top at the tournament in Equatorial Guinea, have four players in the shortlist with Yaya Toure leading the pack from the West African country.
The Ghanaian duo of Christian Atsu and Andre Ayew also made the star-studded shortlist.
Musa and Enyeama were also shortlisted last year with Enyeama making it to the final shortlist of three.
It is yet to be seen if either of the two Nigerian players will finally end the long wait for the country as no Nigerian player has won the top prize since 2000 when Kanu Nwankwo was voted the best on the continent,
Meanwhile, the present 37-man list will be pruned down to 10 by next month before it is further reduced to five and then the final three before the award ceremony is held.
Yaya Toure has won this prestigious award four times including in the last three straight years.