The BBC African Sports Personality of the Year (previously known as the BBC African Sports Star of the Year and the BBC African Footballer of the Year) was an annual award given to the best African sports personality of the year as voted by the BBC radio listeners. Voting was done via SMS and online.
History Initially a sports award, the inaugural winner was Ghana's Abedi Pele in 1992. The only non-footballers to win the award was track and field athlete Frankie Fredericks in 1993, and long-distance track and road running athlete Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia, in 1998. The Zambia national football team were posthumous winners of the award in 1994, following the plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean a year previous. The award became centred around football from 2001 onwards, Cameroon's Patrick Mboma was the last person to win it as a sports award.
Nigeria's Nwankwo Kanu and Jay-Jay Okocha, as well as the Ivory Coast's Yaya Touré and Egypt's Mohamed Salah are the only players to win the award more than once, with two wins.
In 2019, the award was changed back to its initial concept and renamed as the BBC African Sports Personality of the Year to reflect the balance between gender, disability and variety of sports on offer. However there were no awards in 2019 and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, after it was returned back to the sports award, Christine Mboma became the first person to win the award for 2021 season.
The award was discontinued after 2022.
Winners
YearWinnerFootball club(s)Ref.1992 Abedi Pele Marseille1993 Frankie Fredericks 1994 Zambia national football team 1995 George Weah Milan1996 Emmanuel Amuneke Sporting CP Barcelona1997 Nwankwo Kanu Internazionale1998 Haile Gebrselassie 1999 Nwankwo Kanu Arsenal2000 Patrick Mboma Cagliari Parma2001 Samuel Kuffour Bayern Munich2002 El Hadji Diouf Lens Liverpool2003 Jay-Jay Okocha Bolton Wanderers2004 Jay-Jay Okocha Bolton Wanderers2005 Mohamed Barakat Al Ahly2006 Michael Essien Chelsea2007 Emmanuel Adebayor Arsenal2008 Mohamed Aboutrika Al Ahly2009 Didier Drogba Chelsea2010 Asamoah Gyan Sunderland2011 André Ayew Marseille2012 Christopher Katongo Henan Construction2013 Yaya Touré Manchester City2014 Yacine Brahimi Granada Porto2015 Yaya Touré Manchester City2016 Riyad Mahrez Leicester City2017 Mohamed Salah Roma Liverpool2018 Mohamed Salah Liverpool2021 Christine Mboma
Wins by country NationWinners 5 5 4 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1
Wins by club ClubWinners Liverpool 3 Marseille 2 Chelsea 2 Al Ahly 2 Manchester City 2 Arsenal 2 Bolton Wanderers 2 Bayern Munich 1 Internazionale 1 Barcelona 1 Cagliari 1 Leicester City 1 Milan 1 Granada 1 Henan Construction 1 Sporting CP 1 Sunderland 1 Porto 1 Roma 1 Lens 1 Parma 1
See also
African Footballer of the Year
References
External links