ANDREW EKEJIUBA
African soccer legends, Didier Drogba’s (Ivory Coast) and Samuel Eto’o’s (Cameroon) names were conspicuously missing from the Globe Soccer Awards’ Player of the Century (2001-2020), while Egyptian Mohamed Salah made it.
Globe Soccer Awards revealed the 28 nominees for the Player of the Century on Monday without Chelsea legend, Drogba and FC Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o.
However, the two players were almost every year among the best from 2001 until 2018 before the Ivorian retired and the Cameroonian retired in 2019, respectively.
Both of the them scored more than 400 goals in that period and fans are shocked not to see them in this list with Drogba inspiring Chelsea to a stunning champions league title in 2012 ahead of Bayern Munich, while Eto’o won it in a row, Barcelona (2009) and Inter Milan in 2010.
Meanwhile, Globe Soccer Awards included Mohamed Salah who started his career in 2010 with Egyptian Premier League side Al Mokawloon.
Below is the list of the 28 nominees: Andrea Pirlo, Andres Iniesta, Andriy Shevchenko, Arjen Robben, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Fabio Cannavaro, Francesco Totti, Frank Lampard, Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas, Kaká, Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi, Luka Modric, Luís Figo, Manuel Neuer, Mohamed Salah, Neymar, Philipp Lahm, Robert Lewandowski, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, Steven Gerrard, Xavi, Zinedine Zidane and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.