Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund beat out Yaya Toure to win the African Player of the Year.
It was a well-deserved accolade for Aubameyang, and one that would come for him eventually. After the first half of Borussia Dortmund’s campaign was mired in misery, they were able to engineer a second-half turnaround and go from last in the league to 7th and a Europa League qualifying spot. Throughout that time, Aubameyang has been a consistent force for Dortmund who, now under Thomas Tuchel, have gone back to scoring for fun.
African Footballer of the Year!! Oh yes, he made it! Congrats to our no. 17 @Aubameyang7 #GloCAFAwards2015 #deserved pic.twitter.com/k3gvir75QD
— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) January 7, 2016
It was no surprise to see him beat out Yaya Toure considering his ridiculous goal tally thus far while the Ivorian had somewhat of an off-year production wise. Since the season has started, he can’t stop scoring. In all competitions, including for the national team, he has tallied 28 goals and has been among the top scorers in the world:
Europe's top five highest scorers of 2015:
— World Soccer Talk (@worldsoccertalk) December 31, 2015
• Ronaldo - 57
• Messi - 52
• Lewandowski 49
• Suarez - 48
• Aubameyang // Ibrahimovic - 46
As a result, it’s no surprise to see teams like Arsenal make a bid for his services. It’ll be interesting to see whether he will go now and play Champions League football or if he will stay the course with Dortmund and try to move in the summer. He has surely become one of the most coveted players in the world, and anyone in need of scoring would want him on their team.