Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama has been honoured with the Marc-Vivien Foe award for Ligue 1 2013-14 African Player of the Year, becoming the first goalkeeper to win the award.
The award comes days after losing out on the Ligue 1 goalkeeper of the year award and not being named in the Ligue 1 team of the year, both of which went to PSG goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu.
Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang won the award last year during his time at St. Etienne, from where he moved to current club Borussia Dortmund in the German Bundesliga.
Apart from being the first goalkeeper to be honoured so, Enyeama also is the first Nigerian player to win the the award as well as the first player from an Anglophone nation to do so.
The award is co-sponsored by Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France24 TV news channel, and involves 60 journalists voting for the award winner.
Enyeama, who has been called up in Nigeria’s provisional World Cup squad, has kept 21 cleansheets this season, the most in European league football this season as Lille look to finish third and book a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League.