Gurus of African football media, together with the group Pride of Africa have come together and unanimously agreed that CAF President Ahmad be bestowed with the honour of Africa’s Man of the Year 2017.
Pride of Africa is a group set up to give honour to men and women of African origin who have done well globally and excelled in their fields. The aim is to honour Africans and encourage others to aspire to emulate standards that have been set by awardees.
In coming to the decision, big sports media platforms, led by allafrica.com and backed by WhatsApp platforms like Football Africa Arena, it’s French counterpart and other leading organisations have recognised the exploits of the Malagasy who rose to power in March 2017, shocking the outside world to unseat the sitting CAF president of 29 years, Issa Hayatou.
It surely took guts to even aspire to bid for the CAF Presidency, and Ahmad went for it from the off. Not many gave him a chance but he won.
He promised a lot when he was running for office. And he started to deliver great, effective and positive reforms in the governance and running of African football.
He gave all stakeholders a voice – ensuring that the first thing he did when he was elected was to organise a symposium where he brought everyone together in Morocco and listened to their concerns and suggestions on moving African football forward.
Since the symposium in July, the actualisation of the reforms proposed have been in force and every member association is feeling a greater sense of belonging than before.
The collective resolve and unanimity of all the bigwigs of the coverage of African football has led to the collective announcement of Ahmad as the Man of the Year 2017.
The award will be be handed to the CAF president in Accra Ghana on 4 January.
The award will be spearheaded by allafrica.com and aided by the Pride of Africa Group.
In another development, the Pride of Africa nominee for Woman of the Year has been named as Fatma Samoura, General Secretary of FIFA.
Her service to football and becoming a champion and motivating figure amongst women administrators has earned her the accolade.
Ms Samoura will also receive her award in Accra on the same day, in a double bill alongside CAF President Ahmad.
