The African Footballer of the Year award, presented to the best Africanfootballer each year, has been conferred by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since 1992. An earlier African Footballer of the Year Golden Ball award was given out between 1970 and 1994 by France Football magazine. The changes resulted in parallel Golden Ball awards given out to Abedi Pele and George Weah in 1993[1] and 1994[2] by the magazine although the CAF sponsored awards for those years were won respectively by Rashidi Yekini and Emmanuel Amuneke, as well as two awards given to Abedi Pelé in 1992.[3]France Football discontinued the election from 1995 after the EuropeanBallon d'Or – also awarded by the magazine – had been opened to all players in the European leagues.[4]
On 2 February 2008, Sevilla's Frédéric Kanouté was named the 2007 African Footballer of the Year. Kanouté, who was born in France, is the first European-born player to win the award (he plays for his father's native country of Mali).[5][6]
The award by France Football magazine was awarded to the best African footballer between 1970 and 1994. The award was discontinued in 1995 after the European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or) was opened to players of non-European nationality, the award being given to George Weah that year. It had already been replaced by an official award given out by the Confederation of African Football since 1992.
Samuel Eto'o won the award four times.Yaya Touré won the award four consecutive times from 2011 to 2014.Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the first player from Gabon to win the award in 2015.Mohamed Salah is the latest player to win the award in 2017.
Cameroon
Ivory Coast
Ghana
Nigeria
Morocco
Algeria
Liberia
Egypt
Mali
Senegal
Guinea
DR Congo
Gabon
Zambia
Togo
Tunisia
Congo
Chad
