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Song Voted 29th Best African Foootballer (12.01.2007)
This is within the framework of the 50th anniversary celebration of CAF.
Cameroon’s enigmatic captain, Rigobert Song Bahanag has been voted the 29th best African footballer in the last fifty years. The vote, carried out on the internet, falls within the framework of celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Confederation of African Football.
The Confederation of African Football had asked Internet users to choose 50 players who have played a significant role in African football from 1957 to 2006. From an initial shortlist of 200 players, only 30 were retained as only names that scored at least 200 points were taken into consideration. The selection was done based on national, regional, continental, as well as FIFA and Olympic tournaments. In order to give old and new generation players equal chances given that the older generation did not enjoy media impact, a system of coefficients was put in place dividing the period into four. Internet users were authorised to vote even for players who were not
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mentioned in the CAF initial list of 200 players.
CAF intends to publish the results in descending order everyday (from 30th to 1st) as the count down to the celebration date draws nigh. The results, which started being published on January 9, saw Nasr El Din Abbas popularly known as JAKSA from Sudan voted 30th best African player with 202 points. The first player will be known on February 8, date of CAF’s creation in Khartoum 1957.
Rigobert Song, who now plays for Galatasaray in Turkey, has been a key player in the Cameroon national team for over a decade. He took part in the 1994, 1998, and 2002 World Cups. He is the most capped player, with 103 caps. Before joining Galatasaray in 2004, Song played for Metz, Salernitana, Liverpool, West Ham, Cologne, and RC Lens. He won with Cameroon National team two consecutive Africa Cup of Nations: Ghana-Nigeria 2000 and Mali 2002.At the 2006 MTN Africa Cup of Nations, Rigobert broke the record for the greatest number of matches played at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations.
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