African Player of the Year Shortlist: The Final 5

The five-man shortlist for the BBC’s African Footballer of the Year were released on Saturday and it includes three Premier League stars.

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure won the award in 2013, and he tops the shortlist again this year. However, new Swansea signing Andre Ayew and Southampton’s speedy forward Sadio Mane make up England’s top flight contenders.

From the rest of Europe, Borussia Dortmund’s lethal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the favourite to clinch the award, while Porto’s Yacine Brahimi is looking to become only the second player to retain it after winning it 12 months ago.

With the winner to be announced on December 11, Shoot looks into why each player deserves to collect the award…

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund and Gabon)

The Gabon star has 19 goals in 16 games this term

The pacey forward has been instrumental in Dortmund’s turnaround after they started the last season in very poor form. His link up play with Marco Rues, Shinji Kagawa and Henrikh Mkhitaryan has resulted in the German side scoring over 60 goals already this campaign, with Aubameyang netting 19 in 16 appearances. The 26-year-old has also been very important for Gabon over the past few years, and he is having his best period with the national side to date, with five goals in nine games. On current form, the forward deserves to pick up the title.

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