Members of The Skabash Group (TSG), (not to be mistaken for CAF Technical Study Group, TSG) have met to give out individual and group awards to deserving participants at the AFCON 2021.
The people who helped shape the tournament over the past one month shouldn’t go unrecognised and that is what we want to achieve with these awards.
By the way, these awards, albeit unofficial, are less controversial than what CAF’s TSG came up with.
Best Scorer
This category is devoid of controversy because numbers don’t lie. Cameroon’s Vincent Aboubakar claimed the Golden Boot in the AFCON with his eight goals for the Indomitable Lions. The host made it to the semi-finals before being knocked out on penalties by the Pharaohs of Egypt. Karl Toko Ekambi was nearest to Aboubakar at the top of the scoring charts with five goals.
Citation
For his fundamental contributions to our understanding of human skill learning and performance breakdowns in high-pressure goals scoring positions and anxiety-provoking movements on the pitch, Vincent Aboubakar wins this award.
Best Player
Cameroon’s striker and captain, Vincent Aboubakar, is more deserving of the best player award than CAF’s choice Sadio Mane. Granted, the Liverpool star was also impressive throughout the tournament, contributing three goals and two assists and scoring his team’s winning goal in the penalty shootout in Senegal’s triumph over Egypt in the final. Overall, though, Aboubakar’s eight goals of Cameroon’s 14 in the tournament is enough to earn him this accolade.
Citation
For leading his country from the front, scoring vital goals despite the weight of expectations placed on him by the entire population, this award goes to Vincent Aboubakar.
Best Goalkeeper
CAF named Egypt goalkeeper Mohamed Gabal as the best player of the final but picked Senegal’s goalkeeper, Edouard Mendy as the tournament’s top goalkeeper after keeping five clean sheets and conceding two goals at the AFCON in Cameroon. Four of those clean sheets were against Guinea, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Cape Verde! Mohamed Gabal is our choice for his bravery and heroics whenever he was called to duty. However, it was a tough choice in picking one of the two Mohamed as Best Goalkeeper. Mohamed El Shenawy, who conceded one goal, played three group games and 88 minutes of Egypt’s last-16 match. He got injured. Gabal, who replaced him, conceded one goal in three games and took Egypt through two penalty shootouts before being named the best player in the final against Senegal.
Citation
For his on-the-field leadership in linking football, bruises, pains, and suffering to address urgent issues of not conceding a goal in a game, this award goes to Mohamed Gabal.
Best goal
Youssouf M’Changama sensational 35-yard screamer for Comoros against Cameroon gets our nod for the best goal of the tournament. Trailing 2-0 against the host in the last-16 and playing for 89 minutes with an outfield player in goal, a consolation goal was the least the AFCON debutants deserved. There is something particularly joyful about a shot taken from a distance finding the net. M’Changama’s free-kick which flew over Andre Onana and into the top left corner of the post was indeed spectacular. What a goal!
Citation
For ignoring the law of distance which states that the size of the force varies inversely as the square of the distance between the two charges, this award goes to Youssouf M’Changama.
Best game
After losing their first two games in the group stage, Ghana needed to win their last match with two clear goals to book a place in the knockout phase through the backdoor. Playing Comoros, a team making their tournament debut and had lost both of their opening two matches without scoring should be a stroll in the park for the four-time AFCON champions, right? Comoros didn’t read the script.
The Comorians did the unthinkable. They scored early and extended that lead after the hour. Goals from Richmond Boakye and Alexander Djiku drew Ghana level. They were however undone by a goal from Ahmed Mogni as Comoros won their first-ever game in a major tournament.
Citation
For replicating the Biblical story of David and Goliath, this award goes to the Comorians.
Best Coach
‘Serial loser’ would be an unfair tag to apply to Aliou Cisse; ‘serial improver’ would be a much more accurate description. Cisse, as captain of the Lions of Teranga, lost to Cameroon at the 2002 AFCON and as coach in 2019, lost to Algeria in the final. It’s now the third time lucky for the 45-year-old.
Cisse led his team to top Group B that included Guinea, Malawi, and Zimbabwe with five points, scoring one goal while conceding none. In the round-of-16, his team overcame Cape Verde 2-0 with Sadio Mane and Bamba Dieng settling the encounter at the Kouekong Stadium in Bafoussam.
Senegal silenced Equatorial Guinea 3-1 in the quarter-final, setting up a clash with fellow West Africans, Burkina Faso in the semi-finals. His team saw off the Stallions 3-1 with Mane, Famara Diedhiou, and Cheikhou Kouyate all finding the net to move into the final. Cisse’s men triumphed 4-2 in a thrilling shootout that saw him win his first major title as a coach.
Citation
For his outstanding modelling studies of his opponents’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that constrain their effectiveness on the pitch, this award goes to Aliou Cisse.
Best Team
Burkina Faso made it to the semi-finals but this category goes to the Gambia for reaching the quarter-finals in their first-ever AFCON. They took seven points from a group containing Mali and past winners, Tunisia, beat Guinea in the last-16 and were only eliminated by Cameroon in Douala. This could be the start of a special era for Gambian football.
Citation
For being the moral champions of AFCON 2021 and winning many fans in the process, this award goes to the Gambians.
Floppiest Team
We expected the defending champions, Algeria, to at least make the quarter-finals. Not making it out of a group that had Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, and Sierra Leone was shocking. However, they were a little unfortunate to take only one point and score one goal at the tournament. Algeria had the highest average possession, the third most shots per match, and faced fewer shots per game than finalists Egypt. Better luck next time.
Citation
For their seminal contributions to determining the fundamental physics of implosion, shock, and the understanding of the dynamics of the magnetospheres of underachievement, disappointment, and underemployment, this award goes to Algeria.
Conclusion
In case you are wondering why the Super Eagles of Nigeria’s players did not make this list, let’s say this: We are patriotic Nigerians, not emotional ones!
Do you agree or disagree with our choices? Let’s have your feedback in the comment section below.