The first winner of the BBC African Footballer of the year Samuel Osei Kufuor has spoken of his admiration for Michael Essien who has become the latest player to win that award.

Kufuor scooped the inaugural edition of the award before losing the CAF version to El-Hadj Diouf in controversial circumstances but he is adamant Essien is good enough to march off with the top prize from CAF when the winner is named in Accra on March 1 2007.

?For me Essien is the best player in Africa. If I was to select my best eleven for the year he will be in there. When I played with him at the Nations Cup in 2002 you could see from his conduct on and off the field of play that he is the best?, he told Games two days before Essien was named the BBC African player of the year.

Kufuor said it is Essien?s consistency and ability to perform at the highest level that is making him stand out.

?He is a top athlete with great energy and I hope he gets the African player of the year award. When it matters, he is excellent and we saw that against Manchester United and Barcelona as well as for Ghana at the world cup.

?When Chelsea signed Ballack people said that was the end of Essien. Now without him Chelsea cannot move. He is doing great things and the fact that he can adjust when need be is helping him a great deal.?

Kufuor himself who had a long spell at Bayern Munich during a period as Ghana?s most high profile player in Europe says the stage is now set for the Essien to dominate the game and become one of the world?s best players for a long time.

?At the stage he is now, he certainly knows what to do. All I can say is that if he continues to play at this level, he will have a long and distinguished career. And I will be keen to see him do well because he is a great athlete and a great person.?