The others include reigning African player of the year, Yaya Touré and Cote d’Ivoire captain Didier Drogba.

The confederation of African Football has announced the top three candidates for this year‘s African player of the year award with the Cameroonian midfielder, Alexandre Song Bilong featuring among. It would be recalled, the Cameroon born international was voted in second place as Arsenal player of the season by the fans. The defensive midfielder had a hand in vital goals scored by Arsenal in 2011-2012 season. He left for Barcelona in August 2012 after 204 appearances and scoring10 goals for Arsenal. He already has one goal to his credit with his new club, FC Barcelona. He therefore stands a great chance of winning the award this year and join the likes of Roger Milla, Patrick Mboma and Samuel Eto’o who have won the award in the past.

However, he will be facing a stiff challenge from the other contenders both from Cote d’Ivoire. Didier Drogba had an eventful 2011-2012 season with both club and country. He scored the equalizer and winning penalty to give Chelsea the European Champions League title and missed a penalty in 2012 AFCON final during regulation time. His goals took Ivory Coast into 2012 AFCON finals were they finished up second to Zambia. Scored the winning goal in FA cup final for Chelsea before he signed for Shanghai Shenhua in China

Yaya Touré is reigning African Footballer of the year had another stellar season in 2011-2012. His box to box runs have become trade-mark for club and country and made Yaya an important player. He scored 9 goals in 43 games for Manchester City and helped the club win the English Premiership title for the first time in 44 years. He was voted in the PFA Premier League team of the year 2011- 2012 season. With Ivory Coast Yaya was part of the team that blitzed its way to the 2012 AFCON finals before losing the final on penalties to Zambia.