Collecting facts to support an argument is the only way to put this Samuel Eto’o’s/Asamoah Gyan’s saga to an end. Blocking out last week’s CAF award presentation and gather facts to help in making the decision is the only way to draw a conclusion on this debate. According to CAF, Samuel Eto’o Fils is the Best Player of the Year 2010 in Africa; whilst according to BBC, Asamoah Gyan is the Best Player of the Year 2010 in the continent. Who really the world says is the best player in African this year and what do you say?
Here are some questions to draw attentions toward this debate and should be kept in mind when going through the facts. The award was supposed to be given to NOT who has been better for the PAST YEARS but who has been BETTER THAN THE OTHER (Eto’o and Gyan) during the year under review.
Yes, there is no doubt when comparing Asamoah Gyan to Samuel Eto'o Fils in terms of performance for the past years that Eto'o has been consistent and so is better than Gyan. However, the question is during the year 2010, which one of them did better than the other? Which one between them lifted up the continent, his country, and his club? Which one between the two, in the year 2010, has accomplished what no one in the continent has even accomplished with either his national team or his club? That is the root of this debate. Kindly keep the phrase below “EXCEL ABOVE ALL” in mind.

The criteria for the award as CAF indicated are as follows:
Any player of African origin playing within or outside Africa and EXCEL ABOVE
ALL in terms of achievement and performance during the year under review.
1. The performance of the player at national and international levels
2. The consistency of his performance
3. His sports achievements
4. His charisma and influence
5. His popularity
Let us take the two players one after the other and compare based on the above criteria for us to see who was supposed to be crowned, “The King of Africa Football in the Year 2010. Is it Eto'o or Gyan?

Criterion one is the performance of the players at national and international levels but also pay attention to the rest of the criteria when reading through.
At the national level, during the month of January, which was the initial month for the review, the African Cup of Nations was held in Angola. The following are the facts between the two players and their national teams. How did both do? Read along!

IN THE GROUP STAGES, at the end of the 1st matches
Cameroon lost to Gabon 1-0 (Eto'o scored 0 goal)
Ghana lost to Cote d'Ivoire 1-3 (Gyan scored 1 goal in 90+minute)

IN THE GROUP STAGES, at the end of the 2nd matches
Cameroon won against Zambia 3-2 (Eto'o scored 1 goal in the 72nd minute)
Ghana won against Burkina 1-0 (Gyan scored 0 goal)

IN THE GROUP STAGES, at the end of the last matches:
Cameroon drew against Tunisia 2-2 (Eto'o scored 1 goal in the 47th minutes)
Ghana didn't have any match to play because Togo withdrew from the tournament.

Therefore in the group stages, after all the matches played by the competitors, Samuel Eto'o came out 1 goal better than Asamoah Gyan as both players with their respective national teams qualified to the quarter finals round.

THE QUARTER-FINALS:
Cameroon was defeated by Egypt 3-1 (Eto'o scored none)
Ghana defeated Angola 1-0 (Gyan scored in the 15th minutes) Therefore it was Gyan’s effort that brought his team to the semi-finals. Comparing the two, Gyan came up one goal better than Eto’o.

THE SEMI-FINAL STAGE:
Since Cameroon was defeated by the African Champions, Eto’o’s team wasn’t included in the semi finals whilst Ghana beat Nigeria 1-0 in the semi-finals to make it to the finals. (Gyan scored 1 goal in the 21st minute) and that made Gyan gain the upper hand over his competitor, Eto’o

AT THE FINALS, Ghana lost to Egypt 1-0. (Gyan scored 0 goal)

Now together from the group stages through the finals, Gyan scored 3 goals in comparison with Eto'o 2 goals. Gyan beat Eto'o by a goal in the African Cup of Nations. Even though, Asamoah Gyan couldn't score in the finals, he helped his team and his country to reach the highest level of the continental event which has taken the country 28 years to get there. That, to me, is an achievement. Therefore, it made him over-all better player than Eto’o in the 2010 African Cup of Nations tournament.

2010 WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT was held in South Africa and here are the statistics:
(Group Stages) 1st matches
Ghana 1 Serbia 0 (Gyan 1 goal 85th minute)
Cameroon 0 Japan 1 (Eto'o 0 goal)

(Group Stages) 2nd matches
Ghana 1 Austrialia 1 (Gyan 1 goal 25th minute)
Cameroon 1 Denmark 2 (Eto'o 1 goal 10th minute)

(Group Stages) 3rd matches
Ghana 0 Germany 1 (Gyan 0 goal)
Cameroon 1 Holland 2 (Eto'o 1 goal, 65th minute)

WC Round of 16
Ghana 2 USA 1 (Gyan 1 goal 93rd minute) Gyan continued to excel and was very consistence.
Cameroon was already out which Eto’o couldn’t do anything to bring them back. Was Eto’o consistent?

Quarter Finals
Ghana 3 Uruguay 5 (Gyan 1 goal Penalties)

In the world cup too Asamoah Gyan came up big over Samuel Eto'o and therefore Gyan over powered Eto’o.

2. The consistency of a candidate’s performance is the criterion needs to be reviewed now based on the facts above.

Was it not consistent enough for Asamoah Gyan to win the award during the year of 2010? How about Samual Eto’o, was his performance outstanding for him to win the award? It is getting better. Therefore, don’t miss the next part. Allow the facts to work you through.

“In all things, get Understanding, get Wisdom”
Ransford F. Peprah (Football Analyst)
Rnsfdpeprah@yahoo.com