African Footballer of the Year

The African Footballer of the Year award, presented to the best African footballer each year, has been conferred by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since 1992. An earlier African Footballer of the Year Golden Ball award was given out between 1970 and 1994 by France Football magazine. The changes resulted in parallel Golden Ball awards given out to Abedi Pele and George Weah in 1993[1] and 1994[2] by the magazine although the CAF sponsored awards for those years were won respectively by Rashidi Yekini and Emmanuel Amuneke, as well as two awards given to Abedi Pele in 1992.[3] France Football discontinued the election from 1995 after the European Ballon d'Or – also awarded by the magazine – had been opened to all players in the European leagues.[4]

Sadio Mané was the latest winner, winning in 2019

Samuel Eto'o and Yaya Touré are the players who have won the award the most times (4 wins each), Didier Drogba is the player with the most runner-up appearances (4), most third place finishes (3), and most times in the top three (9). Frédéric Kanouté, Riyad Mahrez and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (all born in France) are the only European-born players to win the award (both Kanouté and Aubameyang initially featured for France's U21 squad before going on to represent Mali[5][6] and Gabon, respectively).