Didier Drogba has been named African Footballer of the Year 2009 by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) with 92 points. Move cursor over this video link to see his recent goals.
Below you will find list of all other winners. Click on name link of a winner for a pop-up photo to appear.
Samuel Eto’o came second with 69 points and Michael Essien third with 42 points. Given Drogba’s form for Chelsea this season, it’s tough to argue with the votes. This is Drogba’s second African Footballer of the Year win, after he collected the award in 2006. In 2007 he missed the title apparently by absence.
The Chelsea striker was the headline grabber, but he wasn’t the only winner. Other awards handed out were as follows:
In 2007, I have decided to create the Didier Drogba Foundation. Its first goal is to provide financial and material support in health and education to the underprivileged, especially women and children, who are often the ones who struggle the most. The children’s education is a very important matter to me, as much as their health. And to see women dying while giving birth in the 21st century is unthinkable to me but there is still too many today, particularly on the African continent.
Didier Drogba
Inter-Club Player of the Year
Tresor Mputu Mabi (T.P. Mazembe and DR Congo)
National Team of the Year
Algeria (presumably for their World Cup qualification achievement)
Club of the Year
T.P. Mazembe (DR Congo) – Winner of the 2009 CAF Champions League
Young Player of the Year
Dominic Adiyiah (AC Milan and Ghana U-20) (Top scorer and Most Valuable Player at U-20 World Cup)
Coach of the Year
Sellas Tetteh (Ghana U-20) – Won U-20 World Cup for Ghana
Fair Play Award
Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia) fans
Best Supporters Club
South Africa Supporters Club
African Football Legend:
Stephen Keshi (Nigeria)
Jules Bocande (Senegal)
Osvaldo Saturnino de Oliviera “Jesus” (Angola)
Platinum Award:
Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, President of the Republic of Ghana
CAF Best XI
Goalkeeper – Muteba Kidiaba (T.P Mazembe and DR Congo)
Defenders – John Pantsil (Fulham and Ghana), Nadir Belhadj (Portsmouth and Algeria), Wael Gomaa (Al-Ahly and Egypt)
Midfielders – Alexander Song (Arsenal and Cameroon), Michael Essien (Chelsea and Ghana), Seydou Keita (Barcelona and Mali), Yaya Toure (Barcelona and Cote d’Ivoire)
Attackers – Tresor Mputu Mabi (T.P. Mazembe and DR Congo), Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan and Cameroon), Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Cote d’Ivoire)
Written by Mark Bajkowski.Mark, born in Poland, is a Jack of all trades, master of none, who lives in New York since 1979. Mark has an unusually wide range of interests and is known to relate well to the people half of his age. Since his early childhood, he felt a curious relation to Africa, which unavoidably brings up the controversial subject of multiple-life experiences.
]]>Tinariwen’s latest CD, Imidiwan: Companions, which came out in June 2009 was recorded on a portable studio equipment powered by an electric generator in various Malian village locations. It presents a mix of North African rhythms and a melodic richness of acoustic and electric sounds that often echos blues and even rock music; any Western rock music fan familiar with Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Hendrix will find some of the flicks comfortably familiar. The relentless and “unpolished” sound that Tinariwen delivers is more typical for a casual live performance, rather than for a typical “polished” studio recording, and adds to the honesty of their social and political message. Tinariwen’s multi-layered melodic presentation offers an unending musical feast to any careful listener. It’s only left to the imagination how much more main-stream and influential the Tinariwen would be in the West without the inherent language barrier their lyrics offer.
Tinariwen just keep on keepin’ on, relentless and brilliant as the Saharan sun.
The Guardian (UK)
The Imidiwan: Companions also won the 2009 Uncut Music Award for being “the most inspiring and richly rewarding album of the last 12 months”.
…the nearest thing the modern world provides to a real blues feel.
The Daily Telegraph (UK)
The group’s founder, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib (sitting front right on the photo), grew up in refugee camps in the deserts of southern Algeria. The political credentials of the group are well documented by the fact that the group’s founding member is said to have led armed rebels against Mali’s government. In the early 1960s, Mali threw off the yoke of French colonial rule and became an independent country, ruled from the capital Bamako. A thousand miles away in the northern desert regions, the nomadic Touareg or Kel Tamashek (‘The Tamashek speaking people’) had trouble recognizing the legitimacy of their new rulers or accepting their socialist laws and taxes, their alien ways and demands. In 1963 there was a Tuareg uprising which was brutally suppressed by the Malian army. In 1964, Ibrahim’s father was murdered by the Malian solders, reportedly for aiding rebels fighting against the government, and Ibrahim family’s possessions were destroyed and confiscated. Ibrahim, now forty-eight, eventually ended in Algeria where he started playing music.
I dreamed of avenging my father. I found solace playing guitars I made from sticks and oil cans.
Ibrahim Ag Alhabib
Tinariwen just completed its February 2010 tour of the five USA states with two performances in New York; the group performed in March in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec, Canada. New York’s fans will have opportunity to appreciate Tinariwen again on June 26th, 2010, during the Central Park Summerstage.
The Tinariwen’s tour info and news can be found on their website – move mouse over page capture below to see their current RSS.
Written by Mark Bajkowski.
Mark, born in Poland, is a Jack of all trades, master of none, who lives in New York since 1979. Mark has an unusually wide range of interests and is known to relate well to the people half of his age. Since his early childhood, he felt a curious relation to Africa, which unavoidably brings up the controversial subject of multiple-life experiences. ]]>
The year 2009 will likely be remembered as the beginning of a more assertive phase in Chinese foreign policy, as seen in Beijing’s stance on reform of the international financial system, its massive investments in foreign countries, and in particular, its investment in and acquisition of energy and natural resource assets. At the same time, China’s progress is made in the very competitive global arms markets. Although China is far behind the leaders of conventional weapons supply, their offensive is global and it increasingly includes Africa. China sells arms to states from which it buys oil and gas or where it has gained access to explore for oil or gas (e.g. Sudan). China is also competing with the very strong role that Russia and Ukraine play in the African arms market, providing knock-offs of Russian-made weapons systems.
Military Expenditure by region (source: SIPRI Yearbook 2009, Summary)
Arms transfers to Africa can not be considered a strong weapons market by global standards, at least for now. The largest importers of weapons in Africa—South Africa and Algeria—import less than 10% of the world’s weapons. However, even small volumes of transfers of conventional weapons can have a significant impact on the region.
Militarization of Algeria, for example, plays an increasing role in recent levels of fighting there. Morocco, Algeria’s neighbor and long-term rival, embarked on a significant military modernization programme involving supplies from USA, France and Netherlands. Chad’s arms imports have reached all time high in recent years. Kenya is also a strong importer of weapons from Ukraine. In 2008, a consignment of heavy weapons was hijacked by Somali pirates while en route from Ukraine to Kenya and possibly partially ended in Southern Sudan. Furthermore, Sudan and Somalia are listed on the list of the 5 least peaceful nations on earth used for the Global Peace Index (GPI), which seeks to determine what cultural attributes and institutions are associated with states of peace.
Let’s keep our eyes on related reports published by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in Sweden. By an unfortunate correlation, Sweden, besides being associated with peace, is also a strong player in the international weapons market.