Africa Footballer of The Year: Who will be the last man standing?

There is always time for everything under the sun, time to begin a race and time to finish. When the race for the 2017 Africa footballer of the year started, a 30 man list was dished out of footballers who by their exploits on the pitch have proved that they are indeed a delight to watch. 

Another round of voting saw the list reduced to 11.What you might call Africa's best 11.

They include Egypt and Liverpool's Mohamed Salah,Burkina Faso and Olympique Lyon's Bertrand Traore, Uganda and Mamelodi Sundowns  Denis Onyango and Morocco and Feyenoord's Karim El Ahmadi. 

Others are Senegal and Monaco’s Keita Balde, Guinea and RB Leipzig's Naby Keita, Gabon and Borrusia Dortmund's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Senegal and Liverpool's Sadio Mane, Nigeria and Chelsea's Victor Moses, Cameroon and Porto's Vincent Abubakar  and last but not the least Algeria and Porto's Yacine Brahimi.

They could easily pass for the best 11 within the period under consideration and would have carted away trophies each if the award were to be for the best 11.  

But alas the race is not meant to stop at that stage but proceed to see the emergence of just one ultimate player to join the 52 past winners of the prestigious award.

And so after another round of voting precisely On December 18, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were revealed as the final three contenders for December 4 showdown in Ghana 

While Salah could be said to be a new comer to the platform, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had emerged winner in 2015 while Mane finished as second runner up behind Aubameyang who finished as first runner up to eventual winner of 2016 edition  Algeria and Leicester City's Riyad Mahrez.  Interestingly Mahrez who could not realise his dream of qualifying Algeria for the World Cup in Russia did not get a nomination this time around.

Mohammed Salah who recently emerged BBC African Footballer of the year for 2017 beating Nigeria's Victor Moses to the award from all indications look set to make it a double. The 25-year-old has already scored 19 goals for the Reds this season. At the national level he helped the Pharaohs reach the Nations Cup final in Libreville in February, where they lost narrowly to Cameroon.

Aubameyang, finished as top scorer in the Bundesliga last season, netting 31 goals. At national team level, the 28-year-old Aubameyang made little impression at the African Nations Cup finals in his home country at the start of 2017 and then missed most of Gabon's unsuccessful World Cup qualifying campaigns.

Sadio Mane who has equally had a good run in the premiership represented Senegal at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and scored a goal in each of the nation's opening two games, 2–0 wins against Tunisia and Zimbabwe. After a goalless draw in the quarter-final clash against Cameroon, he missed in the penalty shootout as Senegal were eliminated.

Should the 25 year old emerge winner in Ghana, he would have become the second Senegalese to clinch the award after Hadji Diouf who won the award back to back in 2001 and 2002.

The three finalists are very good players in their own right and electors will definitely not have a tea party in selecting just one for the gong. 

The odds however say favour the Salah who is seeking to be just the second Egyptian to win the title after Mahmoud Al Khatib who played for Egyptian league side Al Ahly from 1972–1988 winning the title in 1983. He made 199 appearances for the club scoring 108 goals.