2015 African Best Player: Mbia, Nkoulou and Aboubakar as nominees

Three Cameroonians have been listed among the 37 contenders for the 2015 best African player title.

They are Indomitable Lions captain, Stephane Mbia of Trabzonspor; FC Porto striker, Vincent Aboubakar; and Olympique de Marseille central defender, Nicolas Nkoulou.

Aboubakar

Among the three international retained by the Confederation of African Football (Caf), Vincent Aboubakar should have more chance. Author of the 2014-2015 season "acceptable", the FC Porto striker has, since the beginning of the year, been the number one offensive weapon of the club and of the Indomitable Lions. He showed good things during the qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations in 2015.

Top scorer of the national team (4 goals) in this campaign before an average participation in Malabo, he is in an exceptional regularity at the highest level. With his two accomplishments, he enabled Lions win their first two games in the CAN 2017 qualifiers. At the club level, he excels equally well.

Yaya Toure, Aubameyang

He was the scorer of four goals in 14 league games and 3 goals in 4 games last season C1. The 23-year-old Cameroonian has 4 goals in 7 league games and 2 goals in 2 matches of the C1. His stats are as impressive as those of his challengers. This is not so much the case with his two compatriots in contention. Less than sparkling Nicolas Nkoulou this season, Stéphane Mbia is not so in the mood he was in Seville last year.

He was the craftsman of the coronation of the Andalusian club C3 (13 games and 3 goals in 2014), aligning beautiful performance accompanied by an award as the best midfielder in Spain in October 2014. However, the Cameroonian has not been in good form since the beginning of the year. Struggling at Trabzonspor in Turkey (6 matches, 1 own goal), Stéphane Mbia also lost points with the Lions where he was challenged.

The three Cameroonians are far from favourites to the holder of the title, Yaya Touré, a nominee for his own succession; Gervinho and Seydou Keita of AS Roma; Yacine Brahimi of FC Porto; Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund among others.

Note that no Cameroonian player has been nominated in the category for best African player playing on the continent.