Ten years later, no Nigerian is even on the shortlist of the CAF or BBC awards as they prepare to announce the best player from the continent in the past eleven months.
Emmanuel Amunike, the former Barcelona winger and CAF African Footballer of the Year in 1994 has said that it's unfortunate that no Nigerians appear on the list. He went on to state that it underlines a terrible year for the Super Eagles who finished third at the AFCON in Angola and failed to progress past the group stage at the World Cup in June.
"I have to admit that I was surprised that not a single Nigerian was shortlisted," Amunike told NEXT.
"I know the Super Eagles didn’t have a good year but some of our players did quite well and one of them should have been included by [CAF or] the BBC."
Even in this dark period, Amunike believes that there was a shining light in the Nigerian team with the performance of Hapoel Tel Aviv goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama who was voted man of the match in two World Cup matches.
"The entire world now knows Enyeama. He is now one of the best goalkeepers in the world and we all saw what he did at the World Cup and how he has been saving his club from embarrassing defeats in the Champions League."
"[He] also scores goals and there are not too many goalkeepers like that in the world so I am really surprised he wasn’t shortlisted.
"The players shortlisted are also good but if you consider the impact of these players in their respective teams then I think Enyeama’s exclusion is a big omission," Amunike said.