PHILNET CONNECTIONS LTD :
Jamie Carragher is right in his comments that AFCON is not a big tournament, and Mohamed Salah can't be considered for the FIFA Player of the Year based on his performance at AFCON.
The funny thing is that many Africans are criticizing Carragher, yet the majority of Africans have little regard for performances at AFCON.
When Mohamed Aboutrika was the best player at the 2008 Africa Cup, CAF instead gave the African Footballer of the Year award to Emmanuel Adebayor, whose Togo even failed to qualify for the tournament.
In 2012, Chris Katongo was the best player at AFCON, but CAF gave the African Player of the Year award to Yaya Touré. A similar situation occurred in 2013 when Jonathan Pitroipa was the best player and had a great year for Burkina Faso, yet CAF still awarded the title to Yaya Touré, who wasn’t even in the AFCON Team of the Tournament.
Then in 2015, Yaya Touré complained bitterly when he had a fantastic AFCON, but the CAF Player of the Year award went to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who only scored one goal in the tournament.
It’s only in recent years that CAF has worked on this issue and started giving more weight to AFCON Participations.
Even today, many Africans argue that an African player winning the English Premier League or the UEFA Champions League should automatically earn him the CAF Player of the Year award.
Now based on the last trends, Mohamed Salah would never be considered for the FIFA Player of the Year award based on AFCON performance because even Africans don’t respect it as a measure for winning our own CAF Player of the Year award.
Carragher is right. Follow me if you are interested to learn more and understand
2025-03-03 09:26:43