The
five candidates for the 2013 BBC African Footballer of the Year award have been
revealed on the BBC's Newsday programme.
Ivory Coast's Yaya Toure has made the shortlist for the
fifth consecutive year and is joined by Nigerians Victor Moses and John Mikel Obi,
Burkina Faso's Jonathan Pitroipa and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Gabon.
The
winner will be decided by African football fans, who have until 18:00 GMT on 25
November to vote for their choice.
You can either vote via this page or by sending an SMS
from your phone to +44 7786
20 20 08:
·
Text
1 for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
·
Text
2 for Victor Moses
·
Text
3 for John Mikel Obi
·
Text
4 for Jonathan Pitroipa
·
Or
Text 5 for Yaya Toure
Standard international text rates apply, please check with
your service provider. Texts are limited to one text per mobile phone number.
The winner will be announced on Monday, 2 December at
17:35 GMT on the BBC's Focus on Africa radio and television programmes.
No player on this year's shortlist, drawn up from votes by
44 journalists across Africa, has won the BBC award before and two - Pitroipa
and Aubameyang - are the first nominees from their respective countries.
Aubameyang, 24, has been in prolific form over the past
year - ending the 2012-13 season with 19 goals for St-Etienne, which put him
second in the list of top scorers in the French Ligue 1, while he also helped
them win the French Cup to claim his first trophy as a professional.
Those performances earned him a summer transfer to
Champions League runners-up Borussia Dortmund, and he has already scored seven
goals in 11 games for the German side.
Pitroipa's biggest highlights came on the international
stage as the 27-year-old winger was named player of the tournament at the
Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa, helping Burkina Faso surprise everyone
by reaching the final.
The
Rennes man has continued to shine for his country, hitting three goals in World
Cup qualification as the Burkinabe aim to reach Brazil by completing a play-off
victory over Algeria, having won the first leg 3-2.
Two players on the list fared even better in this year's
Nations Cup; Mikel and Moses both heavily involved as Nigeria lifted the trophy
for the first time in 19 years.
Mikel, 26, also won the Europa League with Chelsea, while
2013 was the year he finally scored a goal for the Blues, that coming in his
185th game.
Goals have flowed more readily for 22-year-old Moses, the
winger hit six for Chelsea in 2013 before he moved on a season-long loan to
Liverpool, where he scored on his debut in September.
Yet the most potent of the three English Premier League
players on the list is midfielder Toure. The Ivorian, 30, has bagged 12 goals
so far in 2013 - including some exquisite free-kicks.
Although he and his Manchester City team-mates were unable
to retain their league title last season, Toure was still a force to be
reckoned with in the centre of the park - commanding, creative and increasingly
clinical in front of goal.
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