Vincent Enyeama, former Super Eagles captain and Lille OSC goalkeeper, has asked fans to vote for him in the race to win the Ligue 1 Golden Glove Award.
The 33-year-old received his nomination trophy for the Ligue 1 Team of the Year Award on Tuesday.
To win the Ligue 1 golden glove award, Enyeama will contend with Steve Mandanda (Olympique Marseille), Salvatore Sirigu (Paris Saint Germain) and Stephane Ruffier (Saint-Ettiene).
However, the Nigerian is a big favourite for the award as he has 21 clean sheets this season from 35 matches – a feat he capped with the best player award in Ligue 1 for the months of October and November.
While reacting to his nomination on Tuesday, Enyeama pleaded with fans to vote for him so as to win the golden glove award.
“Hopefully on the day, your votes will be enough for me to get the real trophy and not just the nomination trophy, he wrote on his official Instagram page.
“From the depth of my heart, I want to say a very big thank you to God for this season.
He thanked his coaches at the club, especially goalkeeper trainers and all who have worked round the clock to make him a better player.
“A big thank you to all my coaches, staff, medical and equipment managers. The president, directors, co-coordinators, everyone that worked round the clock to make me become a better player and have a successful season, the amazing supporters/fans.
“Special mention is my goalie coach (Jean Pierre) Steeve Elana, Mike Maignan, Jean Butez. All the players from other clubs that nominated and voted me for this award.
“All the journalists and critics that set me on the right path, thank you so much.
Meanwhile, Enyeama has been rated the sixth best goalkeeper in Europe for the 2015/16 season by the Swiss-based CIES Football Observatory.
He is the only African on the top 10 list, making him the best on the continent.
He is behind the likes of Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Kevin Trapp (PSG), and Claudio Bravo (Barcelona).
Enyeama was rated higher than Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris, Alphonse Areola of Villareal, Keylor Navas of Real Madrid and Pepe Reina of Napoli, who all made the list of top 10 shot stoppers across Europe’s top Leagues.
Factors considered in the ranking included number of goals conceded per match, number of minutes per goal, number of passes per match, number of saves per match, number of saves per goal conceded and the percentage of saves.
Enyeama missed out on winning silverware with LOSC Lille this season after their 2-1 defeat to French champions Paris Saint Germain in Saturday’s League Cup final.
Enyeama brought an end to his illustrious international career last year after a bust-up with Sunday Oliseh, former Super Eagles coach, at a camp in Belgium.
He became Nigeria’s most-capped player after making 101 appearances with the national team, including three World Cup appearances and the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations title. (Culled from Daily Independent)
