African Footballer of the Year

Samuel Eto'o and Yaya Touré have won the award the most times (four wins each).

The France-born Frédéric Kanouté, Riyad Mahrez and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and England-born Ademola Lookman are the only European-born players to win the award (both Kanouté and Aubameyang initially featured for France's U21 squad before going on to represent Mali and Gabon, respectively).

The changes resulted in parallel Golden Ball awards given out to Abedi Pele and George Weah in 1993[3] and 1994[4] 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 Pele in 1992.

[5] 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.

It had already been replaced by an official award given out by the Confederation of African Football since 1992.

Ademola Lookman is the latest winner, receiving the award in 2024
Salif Keita , the first player to win the award in 1970.
Mahmoud El Khatib was the first player from Egypt to win the award in 1983.
Roger Milla , two-time winner of the award given by France Football .
Abedi Pele , won the award three consecutive times from 1991-1993 and also won both France Football award and new CAF award in 1992.
George Weah won the award in 1995 (the same year he was named FIFA World Player of the Year and also received the Ballon d'Or )
Samuel Eto'o won the award four times.
Didier Drogba was the first Ivorian to win the award in 2006.
Yaya Touré won the award four consecutive times from 2011 to 2014.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the first player from Gabon to win the award in 2015.
Riyad Mahrez won his first award in 2016.
Mohamed Salah won the award twice in a row, in 2017 and 2018.