Onyango rescues goal keepers from captivity
It is the strikers and midfielders who often dominate the top accolades at football awards across the globe.
Forwards Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s scoring prowess has seen the pair share the Fifa Ballon d’Or gong since 2008.
Very few defenders sneak to the podium like 2006 World Cup winning captain Italian Fabio Cannavaro.
Goalkeepers are often out of the picture. After all, even the best are remembered for a howler rather than crucial saves they make in their careers.
Despite winning the World Cup in Brazil, Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer couldn’t beat Ronaldo in the run-up to the 2014 top Fifa Award.
Somehow goalkeepers hit that glass ceiling when it comes to recognition.
It is difficult for many to accept that a goalkeeper could be a team’s best player on the field, David de Gea case in point in Manchester United’s recent turbulent times.
That’s ground in football. It is not, perhaps, as levelled as one for a batsman and bowler chasing a cricket accolade or full-back and winger in rugby.
So when Denis Onyango made the three-man shortlist for the Africa Player of the Year - Based in Africa, the image he would win at the Glo Caf Awards was inevitably blurred.
But the Uganda Cranes shot-stopper beat Mamelodi Sundowns teammate Khama Billiat and TP Mazembe’s Rainford Kalaba to the prize in Nigeria capital Abuja on Thursday night.
No wonder Onyango, who polled 252 votes, 24 ahead of runner-up Billiat, became the first custodian to win this gong.
In the past, it has gone to mainly forwards most notably Tanzanian Mbwana Samatta last year and Egypt’s Mohammed Aboutrika four times since inception in 2005.
Because of his seven goals in the 2015 Caf Champions League, Samatta beat then TP Mazembe teammate in goalkeeper Robert Kidiaba and Algerian Baghdad Bounedjah to the prize.
But no more. Onyango’s triumph rescued goal keepers from captivity as he beat 2016 Caf Confederations Cup top scorer Kalaba and Billiat whose 12 goals guided Sundowns to the South Africa Premiership title.
Also, Billiat’s three goals guided Zimbabwe back to the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) for the first time since 2006.
But Onyango’s 14 league clean sheets for Sundowns and four clean sheets in six qualifiers as Uganda Cranes returned to Afcon for the first time in 39 years stood heads and shoulders above.
From 2001-08, there was the Goalkeeper of the Year Award which Senegal’s Tony Silva, Egypt’s Essam El-Hadary and Cameroon’s Idriss Kameni won.
Had that remained in existence, Onyango’s star would perhaps have not shone this bright.
Now you know why whoever loves the goal keeping position will toast to his landmark.
