African Player of the Year

The African Footballer of the Year award, presented to the best African footballer each year, has been conferred by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since 1992. An earlier African Footballer of the Year Golden Ball award was given out between 1970 and 1994 by France Football magazine. The changes resulted in parallel Golden Ball awards given out to Abedi Pele and George Weah in 1993 and 1994 by the magazine although the CAF sponsored awards for those years were won respectively by Rashidi Yekini and Emmanuel Amuneke, as well as two awards given to Abedi Pelé in 1992.France Football discontinued the election from 1995 after the European Ballon d'Or – also awarded by the magazine – had been opened to all players in the European leagues.

On 2 February 2008, Sevilla's Frédéric Kanouté was named the 2007 African Footballer of the Year. Kanouté is the first European-born player to win the award (Kanouté plays for his father's native country of Mali).

The award by France Football magazine was awarded to the best African footballer between 1970 and 1994. The award was discontinued in 1995 after the European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or) was opened to players of non-European nationality, the award being given to George Weah that year. It had already been replaced by an official award given out by the Confederation of African Football since 1992.

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