CAF Awards: Okocha, Mikel And Amuneke Among Legends Expected To Light Up Marrakech

Quantity-wise, Nigeria may not weigh much in this year’s CAF Awards which hold in the next few hours in the Atlas Mountain city of Marrakech in Morocco on Monday.

But the country has quality representatives who are most likely to win the prime awards for the African Footballer of the Year – Men and Women – in addition to possibly winning the Goalkeeper of the Year in the Women’s category.

Besides that, Nigeria, with seven, has the highest number of legends invited for the ceremony which will hold at the at the Palais des Congrès, Movenpick, Marrakech.

Headlining the seven Nigerian legends expected at the ceremony is Austin Jay Jay Okocha, who inspite of his stellar performances, agonisingly missed out in 1998 and 2003.

Also invited is Mikel Obi who also missed out in 2013, 10 years after that of Okocha. He will be joined by another Nigerian legend, Emmanuel Amuneke, winner of the award in 1994.

Other Nigerian legends expected to grace this year’s CAF Awards are: Mercy Akide, Onome Ebi, Perpetua Nkwocha and Precious Dede.

Among the prestigious guests from other countries who have confirmed their presence are football legends, music and art celebrities and prestigious names from other sporting disciplines, including Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), Abedi Pele (Ghana), El Hadji Diouf (Senegal), Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo),  Jonathan Pitroipa (Burkina Faso), Kalusha Bwalya (Zambia), Ahmed Hassan (Egypt), and Patrick Mboma (Cameroon),  among others.