Asamoah Gyan slams CAF

Ghana captain Asamoah Gyan has jumped to the defence of his deputy Andre Ayew by launching a scathing attack at CAF insisting the body’s annual award ceremony has lost its value for snubbing the Swansea City star.

The China-based striker says he has twice been the victim of unfair selection by CAF for the African Footballer of the Year and claims such decisions have led to the award losing its value.

Gyan says Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang does not deserve to win the CAF African Footballer of the Year even though he admits the striker excelled last year.

The Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang won the CAF African Footballer of the Year top award on Thursday in Nigeria after edging past Yaya Toure and Ayew.

Gyan, who also bitterly lost out to Samuel Eto’o after being Africa’s top star at the 2010 World Cup, feels excelling at the 2015 African Nations Cup should have been the key deciding factor.

Aubameyang, the first player from the central African country to win the award, scored 29 Bundesliga goals in 2015 including 18 this season plus a further seven in the Europa League.

However, his Gabon team were eliminated in the first round of the Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea.

Toure captained Ivory Coast to the African Nations Cup title at the start of 2015 while Ayew was the joint top scorer in the competition as Ghana faced the Elephants in the final.

Since the tournament in Equatorial Guinea, Ayew scored 12 goals in 14 matches for French side Marseille from February to May while he is currently among the top scorers in England even though he is just a midfielder for Swansea City.

“Aubameyang doesn’t deserve the African Footballer of the Year award. He is a very very good striker and has did well for his club last year. But he did very little at the Africa Cup of Nations.

“I think Andre Ayew did very well at the Africa Cup of Nations and he also excelled with his two clubs so it is very disastrous not to name such a person.

“This has happened to me twice – one in 2010 and 2014. I don’t value the award again.

“CAF should tell us that the award is meant for players playing big clubs in Europe. National team & AFCON don’t matter again.

“Even though CAF snubbed me in 2011 & 2014, I still believe that I’ve won two African Best. They’re killing African Football”

Ghana international Andre Ayew said after failing to win the African player of the year trophy that he did not understand the reasons behind this failure.

The Black Star wondered about the criteria that the Confederation of African Football considers to choose the player of the year.