There is no Ghanaian representation for the other categories of the 2011 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards.
Ghana was conspicuously missing from the list of the other categories released by the continent’s soccer governing body on Wednesday.
The categories are the National team of the Year, Women’s National Team of the Year, Club of the Year, Coach of the Year, Most Promising Talent of the Year, Women’s Footballer of the Year and Referee of the Year.
Ghanaian trio of Asamoah Gyan, Andre Dede Ayew and Kevin Prince Boateng have however been nominated for the flagship African Footballer of the Year award.
According to a release from CAF Secretariat copied to GNA Sports, Africa Cup of Nations debutants’, Botswana and Niger are the contenders for National Team of the Year award alongside Cote d’Ivoire, Libya and the Tunisian local national team that won the African Nations Championship in Sudan in February.
The technical brains behind the historic qualification of the two debutants, Harouna Doula (Niger) and Stanley Tshosane (Botswana) are up against coach of Esperance, Nabil Maaloul and Rachid Taoussi of MAS Fes in the Coach of the Year category.
For the Women’s National Team of the Year, the nominees are Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa whilst CAF Champions League winners’ Esperance of Tunisia, MAS Fes of Morocco and Wydad Athletic Club of Morocco will battle it out for the Club of the Year award.
The Most Promising Talent of the Year is between Ahmed Elshenawy (Egypt), Ahmed Musa (Nigeria), Souleymane Coulibaly (Cote d’Ivoire) and Yaya Banana (Cameroon) whilst reigning African football queen faces stiff challenge from Nompumelelo Nyandani of South Africa and Miriam Paixao Silva of Equatorial Guinea for the Women’s Football of the Year prize.
Ivorian Noumandiez Doue, Djamel Haimoudi of Algeria and Alioum Neant of Cameroon are the contenders for the Referee of the Year.
According to CAF, the list was compiled through a vigorous exercise by the Confederation of African Football, taking into account the performance of the nominees from January to November, 2011.
The winners will be announced at the Awards Gala on Thursday, December 22, at the Banquet Hall, State House, Accra.
The event will be the third time the Ghanaian capital will be hosting the annual event after successfully hosting in 2006 and 2009.