The Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) decision to leave out Super Eagles goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali from the finalists for the Men’s Goalkeeper of the Year award has sparked outrage among football fans in Nigeria and beyond.
Despite Nwabali’s outstanding achievements this season for Nigeria, the Chippa United goalkeeper’s exclusion has caused heated debate and claims of unfair treatment and bias by CAF.
The 27-year-old goalkeeper kept four clean sheets in seven games at the Africa Cup of Nations and also saved two penalties in the semi-final shootout victory against South Africa, ESPN Africa reports.
The Nigerian goalie was the biggest name omitted from the finalists for the Men’s Goalkeeper of the Year award which will now be contested by Andre Onana, Yahia Fofana, and Ronwen Williams.
CAF will announce the winner of the prestigious award when the ceremony takes place on Monday, December 16 in Marrakech, Morocco.
Fans outraged with Nwabali’s snub
Nigerians took to social media to pour out their anger and frustration at CAF after the announcement of the final nominees for the Goalkeeper of the Year award leaving out Nwabali.
@iamdikeh says CAF should be ashamed of their decision.
“CAF needs to be ashamed of themselves, Onana over Nwabali is wild! I won’t be surprised if LOOKMAN doesn’t win his category at this point.”
@_AsiwajuLerry claims CAF is corrupt after snubbing Nwabali from the list.
“This is corruption from CAF!! There’s no metrics you want to use where Onana was better than Nwabali who had 4 Clean sheets in the AFCON competition and saved penalties to push Nigeria to the AFCON final.”
@Wizarab10 beckons why Onana was included ahead of Nwabali on the list.
“Are you mad? Where is Nwabali? What is Onana doing there by any metric?”
Nwabali reacts after CAF’s latest snub
Earlier, Legit reported that Nwabali shared a cryptic post after being excluded among the finalists for the Goalkeeper of the Year award by CAF.
The Nigerian goalkeeper took to X to share “We move” which translates to moving on from the awards and not letting it bother him.
Nwabali is rated among Africa’s best goalkeepers and finished behind Ronwen Williams for the Golden Glove award at the 2023 AFCON in Ivory Coast.
