Eri-Internationalsports.org was selected as one of the voters for the best African players in history by France Football who is closely associated with Ballon De’ hor and FIFA. While it was a privilege to get the request to represent Eritrea in the voting process the choices that were given did not mention any of the 1962 African nation’s cup winners who contained 9 out of the 11 Ethiopian national team members.
Eri-internationalsports.org responded back to France football by writing the following email;
How are you? Hope all is well. I wanted to express something to you before I voted. I would like to share a small disappointment that players like Hassan Shehata of Egypt and Zamalek, Lucciano & Italo Vassalo of Eritrea who played under the Ethiopian flag as a result of forced federation in the 1962 African nations cup as well as a few other players from the 1960’s & 1970’s era who ended up in the USA like Ace Netslenge and Jomo Sono of South Africa. However It is my hope that they will seriously be looked at for similar future selections. I will vote and respond back to youMy top 5 from the choices I have are as follows;1. Didier Drogba(CIV)2. Roger Milla(CAM)3. Mahmoud Al-Khatib (EGY)4. George Weah (LIB)5. Samuel Eto’o (CAM)This was very hard. I also would like to give honorable mention even though you don’t have it as a choice to Mickaël Essien (GHA) & Abedi Pele of Ghana. Thank you and have a great selection. I appreciate the effort to try and promote some of those legendary players from around Africa.Respectfully Yours,Mike Seium (Eritrea)
Meanwhile, because Ahmad Abdullah played most of his career and is alreadyestablished as one of Asia’s top players his candidacy never showed up. Hoping that he will be selected as one of the best in Asia despite his African (Eritrean) roots.France Football sent Eri-internationalsports.org a letter of appreciation for the active participation in maintaining historic information for future generations. Pretty soon Eritrea will make its mark in African Football and these types of collaborations always can help in providing accurate information.
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