Former Nigeria striker Victor Ikpeba believes Nigerian players nominated for the 2013 Glo-CAF Awards have what it takes to win the African Footballer of The Year award but cautioned that favourites sometimes don’t win awards.
Chelsea’s Mikel Obi, Victor Moses (Liverpool), Emmanuel Emenike (Fernabahce) and Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama are the Nigerians nominated in the 25-man list for the awards scheduled for Lagos on January 9, 2014.
Ikpeba emerged as the 1997 African Footballer of The Year after a fantastic season at French side, Monaco.
“I think we should be proud of any of these our players winning it. We shouldn’t get carried away though but I think we stand a good chance of winning it,” Ikpeba said.
“We’ve seen (Lionel) Messi not winning the Champions League with Barcelona and also winning nothing with Argentina but he was voted world’s best player.”
The 1996 Olympic Games gold medallist added that any of the four Nigerian players stood a chance of winning the award.
He said, “I am surprised that everybody is talking about Mikel; I think we should look at other players like Moses and Emenike because they have done very well.
“Enyeama is very good too and he stands a chance of winning because it’s been a very long time a goalkeeper won the award since Thomas Nkono and Badou Zaki did.
“Mikel has done well; he has won the Nations Cup, the Europa Cup and he had a fantastic Confederations Cup, scoring a great goal but the award is all year round, not a particular tournament.”
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