Glo-CAF African Player of the Year winner, Yaya Toure has said that he won the coveted award largely because of his commanding and excellent performance for his English Premier League outfit Manchester City and his telling contributions for the Elephants of Ivory Coast.
Toure, winner of the 2011 and 2012 editions on Thursday night at the Eko Hotel, made it a hat-trick of victories when he defeated Eagles midfielder John Mikel Obi to second place in the 2013 award ceremony.
His victory surprised not a few Nigerian fans, who had thought that Eagles AFCON success in South Africa and Chelsea’s Europa Cup triumph were going to be enough to steer Mikel’s to the highest pedestal of individual award on the continent.
But like he did in the last two editions, Toure once again was voted the best player on the continent for 2013 by national team coaches, who gave him their overwhelming votes and speaking to reporters afterwards, the 26 year-old towering Ivorian midfielder said it was a rare honour to be deemed the best player once again.
"This is a rare honour to me because it came I was thinking that maybe I will lose the poll but I think
I was lucky today. To be honest with you, when you see the best footballers in the world, it is quite tight and difficult to achieve something with the clubs. The case of Messi who has won the award four times in a row comes to mind because he has not done anything for his country but his performance at his club has been the reason why he won the awards. I think the best player in Africa has to be someone who is doing something great for his club in Europe and Africa and I am very proud and honoured to win it," added Toure.
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