European-born Kanoute takes Africa’s top award

Though Mali is gone from this years edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, at least one member of the team will still be going back to their club with some hardware. On Friday, Mali and Sevilla striker Freddy Kanoute was named the 2007 CAF African Footballer of the Year. It’s too bad the award comes after a somewhat disappointing showing in Ghana, but Kanoute is deserving nonetheless, mainly because of how he has led Sevilla to an impressive year and took Mali successfully through ACN qualifying. It was a close race and Didier Drogba could have easily won, but in the end Kanoute edged him out.

It seems a little strange that someone not born in Africa could win this award, but Kanoute’s father is from Mali and Freddy seems to be all about Mali now even though he played for his native France as a junior international until 2004. After receiving the award he said, “I dedicate this to my family, who could not be here and to the people of Mali.” He also stated, “I believe that sport can be used as a tool for development in Africa.”

This is good for Mali and good for Kanoute as he will play a major role in Mali’s attempts to qualify for South Africa 2010.

In honour of this award for Freddy, here’s a video compilation I found. It’s an older one from when Kanoute was with Tottenham but has some great highlights. By the way, I bet no one is happier than Sevilla to have seen Mali eliminated…welcome back Keita and Kanoute.