The BBC African Footballer of the Year award is decided by listeners of BBC Fast Track on the BBC World Service and visitors to bbc.co.uk/africanfootball.
Ghana’s midfield icon, Michael (Bull)Essien was voted the 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation African Footballer of the Year.
Essien, who is also vying for the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Africa Footballer of the Year goes into the contest with a slight advantage over his opponents, Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o of Barcelona and Cameroon, due to the BBC award.
The BBC award has been running since 1992 and previous winners include Abedi Pele and Samuel Osei Kuffour of Ghana, Patrick Mboma of Cameroon, Senegal’s El-Hadji Diouf, Nigeria’s Emmanuel Amuneke and the entire Zambian side of 1993.