The shortlist for the BBC’s African Footballer of the Year 2015 has been announced with three Premier League stars in the running alongside holder Yacine Brahimi and goal-machine Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Algeria winger Brahimi has built on the impressive form that saw him recognised last season by scoring a career best 13 goals for Porto and helping them reach the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in six years. Only Lionel Messi and Eden Hazard completed more dribbles than him prior to the semi-finals.
Aubameyang is rightly included for a third successive season after becoming the first player to score in the first eight Bundesliga games of the season. In his first 17 competitive games in total the Borussia Dortmund forward has netted 20 goals.
Swansea’s Andre Ayew was top scorer in the Africa Cup of Nations in February as Ghana reached the final, and after moving to Swansea he continued his excellent form in the Premier League scoring five goals in his first 10 games.
Sadio Mane – linked with a move to Manchester United from Southampton in the summer – scored the quickest hat trick in Premier League history and in total the 23-year-old has contributed 10 goals and five assists for Saints in 2015.
The final contender is Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure who lifted the Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory
