Super Eagles stars Mikel Obi and Emmanuel Emenike are still in the race for the 2013 CAF African footballer of the Year after the top 10 nominees were named on Thursday.
Other Nigeria stars in the top 10 are goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama and Ahmed Musa, MTNFootball.com reports.
All the four players were involved as Nigeria won a third Africa Cup of Nations in February and also qualified for a fifth FIFA World Cup.
Cote d’Ivoire’s Yaya Toure, who won the prestigious award last year, is also still in contention as his compatriot Didier Drogba.
Other players in the shortlist are Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang (Gabon), Mohamed Aboutrika (Egypt), and Jonathan Pitroipa (Burkina Faso).
The nominees for the best African Player based on the continent have also been whittled down to five.
They are – Sunday Mba (Nigeria), Aboutrika, Ahmed Fathy (Egypt), Rainford Kalaba (Zambia) and Treso Mputu Mabi (DR Congo).
Aboutrika won last year’s version of this award.
The CAF Awards will be staged in Lagos on January 9, 2014.