Former Super Eagles midfielder, Edema Fuludu has lamented over the absence of Nigerian players on the podium for African Footballer of The year, but admits it is because the current stars are not standing out.
Sports247.ng reports that Fuludu took another look at the array of players Nigeria has to offer, but limited his choices to just Victor Moses at Chelsea of England and Ahmed Musa at Al-Nassr of Saudi Arabia.
The Tunisia ’94 AFCON winner, however, admitted that Moses has not been in top form this season, while he hinted that Musa’s departure from Europe might have worked against him.
Fuludu, though, went on to question the rationale that has seen the CAF Awards in recent time go to performers outside the continent.
He argued that focusing on players in Europe is not fair on those who feature in CAF organised competitions.
The Delta State Football Association vice-chairman argued that it would have been better to limit the award to those who feature in continental club competitions, play at the Africa Cup of Nations or help their country qualify for the FIFA World Cup.
Fuludu, however, stressed that the biggest worry for him is the continued absence of Nigerian players on the CAF Awards platform.
The soccer-star-turned administrator moaned: “Unfortunately Nigerian players are not in that range as it is now.
“Victor Moses was good with Chelsea, but this season he has fallen out of favour and is not in the coach’s plan for the current season.
“Ahmed Musa of course is no longer in Europe, these are top class players that can be picked as African players of the year.
“Well it’s very unfortunate, I have always believed that the African player of the year of course should be an African.
“It is the European League that are used for judging the African player of the year and neglect our own CAF Champions League.
“We don’t look at our AFCON and domestic matches. If they don’t even play in their local leagues, they can use African games to act as criteria.”
