Mikel, Moses nominated for BBC award

Moses and Mikel

Nigeria’s duo of Mikel Obi and Victor Moses have been nominated for this year’s BBCAfrican Footballer award alonside three other Africa’s best in the Eurpean leagues.

Ivory Coast’s Yaya Toure is making the shortlist for the fifth consecutive year, while Burkina Faso’s Jonathan Pitroipa and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Gabon complete the list.

The winner, who will be unveiled on December 2, will be decided by African football fans via SMS.

No player on this year’s shortlist, drawn up from votes by 44 journalists across Africa, has won the BBC award before and two – Pitroipa and Aubameyang – are the first nominees from their respective countries.

Mikel and Moses both helped Nigeria lift the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations trophy for the first time in 19 years.

Mikel, 26, also won the Europa League with Chelsea, while 2013 was the year he finally scored a goal for the Blues, that coming in his 185th game.

Goals have flowed more readily for 22-year-old Moses, the winger hit six for Chelsea in 2013 before he moved on a season-long loan to Liverpool, where he scored on his debut in September.

Toure appears to be the most potent of the three English Premier League players on the list. The Ivorian, 30, has bagged 12 goals so far in 2013 – including some exquisite free-kicks.

Aubameyang, 24, has been in prolific form over the past year – ending the 2012-13 season with 19 goals for St-Etienne, which put him second in the list of top scorers in the French Ligue 1, while he also helped them win the French Cup to claim his first trophy as a professional.

Those performances earned him a summer transfer to Champions League runners-up Borussia Dortmund, and he has already scored seven goals in 11 games for the German side.

Pitroipa’s biggest highlights came on the international stage as the 27-year-old winger was named player of the tournament at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa, helping Burkina Faso surprise everyone by reaching the final.