{"id":2463,"date":"2020-12-26T21:25:09","date_gmt":"2020-12-26T21:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=2463"},"modified":"2021-09-14T08:49:49","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T07:49:49","slug":"africas-undisputed-goal-king-part-fifteen-africas-beckenbauer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2020\/12\/26\/africas-undisputed-goal-king-part-fifteen-africas-beckenbauer\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa\u2019s Undisputed Goal King (Part Seventeen) Africa\u2019s Beckenbauer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (May 13th<\/sup> 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strange Omissions and Inclusions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no doubt that Ahmed Faras was a great player \u2013 one who deserved the accolades he received later in his career, but how could it compare with Chitalu\u2019s 1972? Africa\u2019s Goal King had the best year of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, it was arguably the best year of anyone\u2019s career. He had set two world records, two African Cup of Champions Clubs records and won all five trophies that were on offer domestically to his club, Kabwe Warriors, that year. What more could be expected of him and Kabwe Warriors?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, he did not feature in the top ten of the African Player of the Year (APotY) Awards that year.Chitalu was not even the top ten of France Football Magazine\u2019s vote that year. There were odd inclusions, which have already been detailed \u2013 see Parts 14-16<\/strong>\u2013 but as will be shown in later articles in this series, Chitalu was far from the only notable exclusion in the APotY list of 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incomplete<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The top ten of the APotY vote was half completed and, in fact, it stood out more for notable omissions than notable achievements. The top ten was lopsided. The top 5 was, in reality, a top 5+1 as the late Algerian defensive midfielder (libero) Miloud Hadefi was equal 5th<\/sup> with Faras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Hadefi\u2019s inclusion was absolutely baffling as well. Like Faras, Hadefi is undoubtedly a great player and he too had far better years, but his 1972 was not even comparable to Faras, let alone to Chitalu, or Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winners, Fran\u00e7ois M\u2019Pel\u00e9 and Jean-Michel M\u2019Bono.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And like the Moroccan striker, Faras, Hadefi played for an unfashionable club. Neither Chabab Mohamm\u00e9dia, nor MC Oran trip off the tongue when referring to the best-known teams of Morocco and Algeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Incomprehensible<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Faras, Hadefi was a defensive midfielder but, position aside, his place on this list is baffling. Algeria had not qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations or the Olympic Games. And his club hardly shone in African or domestic competition either. What, if anything, was special about his 1972?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hadefi\u2019s club, MC Oran, won the Algerian championship for the season 1970-71 and MC Alger were the champions in 1971-72 \u2013 the 1972-73 champions were JS Kabylie, but Algeria went unrepresented in the African Cup of Champions Clubs in 1972 \u2013 the year that Oran had earned the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

USM Alger achieved an unwanted hat-trick, losing the Algerian Cup each season between 1971-73. The Cup holders in 1971 and 1973 were MC Alger, sandwiching Hamra Annaba 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Hadefi\u2019s club, Oran, did not win anything in domestic football in 1972 and they did not play in the 1972 African Cup of Champions Clubs tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strangely, Algeria did not always take up their place in Africa\u2019s top competition for clubs \u2013 the last Algerians to do so were another unfancied champion of Algeria, CR Belcourt (Chabab Belouizdad) in 1970.[1]<\/a> So, what did Hadefi do to warrant inclusion in the 1972 APotY list?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> CR Belcourt refused to play the second leg in S\u00e9n\u00e9gal against ASC Jeanne d\u2019Arc, despite leading 5-3 in 1970. The second leg was awarded 2-0 to Jeanne d\u2019Arc which sent the S\u00e9n\u00e9galese through to the next round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeanne d\u2019Arc de Dakar is one of the most successful and historic clubs in S\u00e9n\u00e9gal. It was founded in 1923 but has fallen on hard times since its glory days. They now play in the third tier of S\u00e9n\u00e9galese football. The rich history of this club and its contribution to both football and S\u00e9n\u00e9gal is in danger of being lost to future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MC Alger was the next Algerian team to enter the competition in 1976. After a 3-3 draw on aggregate \u2013 both teams won their home legs 3-0 \u2013 the Algerians beat the defending champions Hafia 3-1 on penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Brasilian Independence<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hadefi played two of Africa\u2019s four matches in the Brazil Independence Cup \u2013 both losses. France and Argentina beat Africa 2-0 in both matches. Hadefi was a fantastic player \u2013 anyone referred to as \u2018the African Kaiser\u2019 by Pel\u00e9 due to his opinion that Hadefi was similar to the great Franz Beckenbauer, had to be a special player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the question remains, why was so special a player only picked for two of the matches in that tournament? Could two matches, however good, come anywhere near to trumping Chitalu\u2019s 1972, or the Republic of Congo\u2019s AFCON triumph?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there is the question of whether Hadefi was even the best player for Oran in 1972. Hadefi\u2019s teammate for club and country, Abdelkader Benfr\u00e8ha, was the top-scorer in Oran\u2019s 1970-71 season. He was not mentioned in the APotY vote, but his 1972 was better than Hadefi\u2019s as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hadefi\u2019s inclusion in the top ten, let alone equal 5th<\/sup>, is baffling. This appeared to be a very strange APotY vote for many reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (May 13th 2020) Strange Omissions and Inclusions There\u2019s no doubt that Ahmed Faras was a great player \u2013 one who [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,16,14,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2463"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2900,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions\/2900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}