CAF on Thursday revealed the final 10 nominees for the Women’s Player of the Year award and the Atletico Femeni star was missing
Nigeria has been at the receiving end of CAF’s lack of standards in nomination of players for major awards.
Like in the men’s category where consistent performers were snubbed for tournament stars, CAF also made a major error of judgment in snubbing Rasheedat Ajibade in the final ten nominees for player of the year.
In the last one year, it’s difficult to project ten African players better that have proven to be better than the Atletico Femeni Star.
In 23 games last season, she scored 10 goals in the La Liga Femeni and proved to be a force to reckon with in the team.
She also featured in virtually every Super Falcons game in the qualifiers and was a star in those games. The basis for CAF’s selection continues to be a problem and it is confusing what their rationale is.
Ajibade responded to the snub with a well-taken match winner against Cameroon, in a perfect reminder to the selection bodies of their failure to take basic conditions into cognisance when selecting players for awards.
That Ajibade was not nominated in the top 10 for the Player of the Year beggars belief.
In the male category, there was no single star performer in the CAF Champions League considered good enough to be in the run-in for the Player of the Year and the women’s category lacks any form of standard altogether.
CAF must put its house in order, make decisions it can be proud of and make clear rationale as to its choices.
It’s left to be seen what decisions will follow and who the eventual winner will be. The jury is out.