November 1st saw the Confederation of African Football announce the list of players to receive awards for their achievements over the past season.

How often have goalkeepers emerged as their team’s saviours? Iker Cassillas, Petr Cech, Gianluigi Buffon and Manuel Neur are just a few examples. All of them deserved to win at least one Golden Ball, according to sports analysts. But it was difficult for them to compete with the outfield players.

The situation has not really changed today. There is no doubt that this is one of the reasons why the CAF has decided this year to make a distinction between the outfield players and the goalkeepers. There are two categories for the awards. For goalkeepers, there are 10, including Cameroonian André Onana and Morocco’s goalkeepers: Youssef El Motie and compatriot Yassine Bounou.

In the other category, 30 outfield players will be competing for the award, which was won by Sadio Mané last year. Two Cameroonians are in the running: Vincent Aboubacar and Zambo Anguissa. The voters are made up of CAF technicians, media professionals, national coaches and captains from CAF member countries and clubs participating in continental interclub competitions.