Despite being ruled out of contention for the biggest prize on offer, there will still be a lot to look out for Nigeria at the upcoming 2015 Glo-CAF Awards as the country has been nominated in five other categories, including the National Team of Year award.
The biggest prize is Africa’s best footballer of the year award.
Both the Nigeria U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets that won an unprecedented 5th title at the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup, and the Nigeria U-23 that finished tops at the just concluded Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, have however been nominated for the national team of year category.
Others in run for the National Team of Year in Africa are the 2015 AFCON champions, the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, runners-up, The Black Stars of Ghana, as well as the Malian U-17 team that lost to Nigeria in the final of the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Also, coach of the victorious Golden Eaglets team, Emmanuel Amuneke, has emerged as one of the nominees in the Coach of the Year category.
Amuneke led the Eaglets to victory in Chile where they defeated all comers to emerge champions of the cadet tournament for an unprecedented fifth time.
Amuneke’s lads defeated African brothers, Mali, in the final to win the 2015 edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
The former Super Eagles star, who was also part of the backroom staff with the 2013 victorious Golden Eaglets squad, has a rich list of other coaches to contend with in his category of nomination.
Those also listed in the Coach of the Year category includes; Baye Ba, (Mali, U17) Fawzi Benzarti, (Etoile Sportive de Sahel), HervĂ© Renard, (Cote d’ivore) and Patrice Carteron, (TP Mazembe).
On their part, the Golden Eaglets duo of Kelechi Nwakali and Victor Osimhen are in the run for the Youth Player of the Year while the duo of Azubuike Okechukwu and Etebo Oghenekaro from the U-23 team are in the Most Promising Talent category.
Nigeria also has a representation in the Women Player of the Year category where Ngozi Ebere is listed amongst four others.
As stated by the organisers, the winners will be decided by votes from the CAF Football land Media Committees, the exception would be Legend and Platinum awards, which are not subject to vote, while Referee of the Year Award will be decided by the votes of CAF Refereeing Committee.
The winners will be announced at the Glo-CAF Awards Gala scheduled for Thursday, January 7, 2016 in Abuja, Nigeria.