The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has named the final three for its 2015 Player of the Year award.
Ivory Coast’s Yaya Toure could be the first man to win the accolade five times.
The Manchester City star is up against Ghana and Swansea’s Andre ‘Dede’ Ayew and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Gabon and Borussia Dortmund.
The winner is chosen by head coaches of the FA’s affiliated to Caf and will be announced at a gala on 7 January.
Caf named an original list of 37 players in October before cutting it down to ten last month.
Toure, who captained Ivory Coast to the Africa Cup of Nations title in January, has won the award for the last four years and was named the BBC’s 2015 African Player of the Year last week.
Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o is the only other player to have been crowned the best on the continent four times by Caf, winning in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010.
Caf has also released the final three names for the Africa-Based Player of the Year; Baghdad Bounedjah of Algeria and Etoile du Sahel as well as the TP Mazembe duo of Tanzania’s Mbwana Samatta and the DR Congo goalkeeper Robert Kidiaba.
Nominees for other 2015 Caf Awards:
Women’s Player of the Year:
Gabrielle Onguéné – Cameroon
Gaelle Enganamouit – Cameroon
Ngozi Ebere – Nigeria
N’rehy Tia Ines – Ivory Coast
Portia Boakye – Ghana
Youth Player of the Year:
Adama Traore – Mali
Kelechi Nwakali – Nigeria
Samuel Diarra – Mali
Victor Osimhen – Nigeria
Yaw Yeboah – Ghana
Most Promising Talent:
Azubuike Okechukwu – Nigeria
Etebo Oghenekaro – Nigeria
Djigui Diarra – Mali
Mahmoud ‘Kahraba’ Abdelmonem – Egypt
Zinedine Ferhat – Algeria
Coach of the Year:
Baye Ba – Mali Under-17
Emmanuel Amunike – Nigeria Under-17
Fawzi Benzarti – Etoile du Sahel
Hervé Renard – Ivory Coast
Patrice Carteron – TP Mazembe
Referee of the Year:
Alioum Neant – Cameroon
Bakary Papa Gassama – The Gambia
Eric Arnaud Otogo Castane – Gabon
Ghead Zaglol Grisha – Egypt
Janny Sikazwe – Zambia
African Legend:
CK Gyamfi – Ghana
Samuel Mbappé Léppé – Cameroon
National Team of the Year:
Ivory Coast
Ghana
Mali Under-17
Nigeria Under-17
Nigeria Under-23
Women’s National Team of the Year:
Ghana
Cameroon
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Club of the Year:
USM Algers – Algeria
TP Mazembe – DR Congo
Orlando Pirates – South Africa
Etoile du Sahel – Tunisia
credit: bbc
