Former Sports Minister, Saidu Samaila Sambawa, has disclosed that Nigerian International, Mikel Obi, as not done enough to emerge the African Footballer of the Year compared with the inspirational performance of Yaya Toure for Cote d’ Ivoire and Manchester City.
General opinion has favoured the choice of Mikel to emerge as the 2013 African Footballer as a result of his outstanding performance with the Super Eagles and Chelsea but Sambawa has a contrary opinion to the choice of Mikel, preferring Yaya Toure as worthy of winning the award.
Sambawa said: “As a patriotic Nigerian, I want Mikel to win the award because I happen to be the first person to give Mikel his first break through the 2005 World Youth Championship. I was also a major party to solving the transfer imbroglio between Manchester United and Chelsea before Mikei finally joined Chelsea. But my personal opinion is that Mikel has not done enough for club and country to edge out Yaya from winning the award.”
The former Sports Minister also argued that “people are using the performance of the player at the Africa Cup of Nations as a yardstick for Mikel to win the award but they have forgotten that the Eagles gelled as a team in the competition, which also fired Mikel up in the competition.
“My argument is that Chelsea and the Eagles can play well and win games without Mikel but Manchester City cannot do without Yaya in the team while the Toure Junior is also the engine room for the Elephants of Cote d’ Ivoire. So I won’t be surprised if Toure eventually emerges the winner because he has done enough to win the award. But I will be happy if Mikel wins as a Nigerian.”
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