African Footballer of the Year Award should only go to Africa-based players – Adebayor tells CAF

Former Togolese international, Emmanuel Adebayor, believes that the African Footballer of the Year Award should only be awarded to players playing on the African continent.

Adebayor, 36, who himself won the award in 2008 while playing for English giants Arsenal, took a swipe at CAF for awarding Liverpool duo of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane the past three awards.

However, Adebayor feels the recognition to players in Europe is a misguided concept in his recent tirade against the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

Since CAF took over the official award from France Football in 1992, no player based in Africa has won the title.

“I distanced myself from African football because of corruption and way of doing things that side,” he said, as per KingFut.

“I only honour my country Togo. And if they invited me to any event that has anything to do with CAF I won’t show up because of the leaders of the organisation.

“How is Sadio Mane winning CAF Best Player Of The Year when he’s not African based, Lionel Messi has never won any continental individual trophy in his continent.”