Essien Names Enyeama In His African Team of The Decade List

Legendary Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien has included former Super Eagles goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama in his African Team of The Decade List.

Essien’s African Team of The Decade was published on BBC Sport on Monday.

Also on Essien’s list are Cote d’Ivoire’s Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure and Kolo Toure and Samuel Eto’o and Benoit Assou-Ekotto from Cameroon.

Others are Senegal duo of Sadio Mane and Kalidou Koulibaly, Morocco’s Medhi Benatia and Mohamed Salah of Egypt.

Commenting on Enyeama’s performance in the last decade, BBC Sport wrote: “Enyeama is one of the few African goalkeepers to have had a successful career in Europe. He won the Israeli League title with Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2013.

“He went onto keep 11 consecutive clean sheets while with Lille and was 115 minutes away from beating Ligue 1’s all-time record of minutes-of-clean-sheets set by Gaetan Huard in 1993 where he played 1,176 minutes without conceding a goal.

“At the national team level, Enyeama helped Nigeria win the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013, ending a 19-year drought for the Super Eagles.

“Vincent Enyeama was arguably Nigeria’s best player at the 2014 World Cup when they qualified to the knockout stage.”

During his time at Enyimba, Enyeama was part of the Aba-based club that won the 2003 and 2004 CAF Champions League against Ismaily of Egypt and Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia respectively.

Essien’s African Team of The Decade List:

(Goalkeeper)

Vincent Enyeama

(Defenders)

Kolo Toure

MedhiBenatia

Kalidou Koulibaly

Benoit Assou-Ekotto

(Midfielders)

Yaya Toure

Michael Essien

Sadio Mane

(Forwards)

Didier Drogba

Sadio Mane

Samuel Eto’o