Brahimi beats Enyeama to BBC award

Vincent Enyeama

Algeria’s Yacine Brahimi has been voted the BBC African Footballer of the Year 2014 ahead of Super Eagles captain Vincent Enyeama.

The 24-year-old midfielder becomes the first Algerian to win the award, which is decided by football fans.

Brahimi told BBC Sport, “It’s a big honour for me to receive this wonderful trophy. I owe it to my country, Algeria, and to all the people who voted for me.

“It’s also a trophy for the whole of Africa, because it rewards an African player. So I am really very happy.”

After a record number of votes were submitted from fans in 207 FIFA-registered countries, Brahimi came out on top ahead of Nigerian Vincent Enyeama, Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ivorian pair, Gervinho and Yaya Toure. Brahimi and Enyeama were shortlisted on Monday before the final selection was made.

And he is thrilled to have been acclaimed as the best player on the continent for the past year.

“This trophy is going to give me more strength, more desire to work, to get better, to learn so that I can keep having great performances,” Brahimi added.

During 2014, Brahimi has shone for both club and country.

He starred for Algeria at the World Cup in Brazil, helping them reach the last-16 for the first time.

Domestically, Brahimi started the year at Spanish club, Granada, where his strong performances led to him being named best African player in the country last season – and earned him a move to Portuguese giants Porto.

At the world level, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Manuel Neuer will battle it out for the 2014 Ballon d’Or after being named on the three-man shortlist for the prestigious award.

The original 23-man shortlist – which included Gareth Bale as the only Briton – was trimmed to three by a group of football experts from the FIFA Football Committee and France Football.

Ronaldo is defending his crown after winning it in 2013 to end Messi’s three-year run as the world’s best player since FIFA and France Football merged their awards.

It is the eighth consecutive year that Messi has made the shortlist having broken both Champions League and La Liga scoring records this month.

He also won the Golden Ball at the World Cup, although he will end 2014 without a team honour as Argentina lost to Neuer’s Germany in the World Cup final.

Neuer, who won the Golden Glove award in Brazil, won the German league and cup double with Bayern Munich before lifting football’s biggest prize and would become only the second goalkeeper to win the prize after the Soviet Union’s Lev Yashin.

The winners of all the awards will be revealed at the final ceremony in Zurich on January 12.