Who's the best player now: Drogba or Eto'o?

For three years in a row, the title 'best African football player' has been awarded to Eto'o. But his main competitor - Didier Drogba - is right behind him. And Drogba is closing in for next years award since Eto'o is now recuperating from a knee surgery and therefore he misses a great part of the current footballseason.

It is difficult to think of these two players as each other's biggest rivals, since they are not even playing in the same competition. Eto'o, the fast Cameroon striker, plays for FC Barcelona in the Spanish Primera Division. Ivorian striker Drogba, on the other hand, is currently the man in form at his side Chelsea in the English Premier League.

But they're both African players, they're both strikers, and they're both the best footballers around. So the rivalry between the two is very much present.

Champions League

And occasionally, they do meet each other on the pitch - in the European Champions League. In the season of 2004 / 2005, Barcelona and Chelsea were opponents in the eight finals. Barcelona won the first match with 2-1, in which Drogba received a rather controversial red card. Chelsea made up the deficit in London: within 15 minutes they were up 3-0. In the end, Chelsea went on to the quarter finals with a 5-4 overall victory. Eto'o did manage to score a goal. One-nil for the Cameroonian player.

In the season of 2005 / 2006, for some reason, they met each other again in the eight finals. This time, Barcelona was the better team in two matches (3-2) - with a decisive goal from Eto'o in London - and went all the way through to the finals. And won. Two-nil for Eto'o.

Eto'o also received the title 'pichichi' for leading the topscorers list last season in Spain. So it wasn't really a surprise that he was voted ahead of Drogba as best African player of the year for the third time this year, albeit with the narrowest margin (2 votes) possible.

Football shape

Now, however, with the start of the new season, things have changed. Granted, Eto'o was on a roll again in the Spanish league. He just signed a deal with Ford, stating that he would receive a car for every goal he'd score. But then fate stepped in. Eto'o got seriously injured during a match against Werder Bremen at the end of September. He's out for at least five months.

And Drogba is in the finest football shape of his career so far. He's currently the topscorer of the English Premier League with eight goals. He scored a hattrick last Saturday in the match against Watford. In the Champions League too, he's right on target. For instance, in Nou Camp he scored the vital equalizer against home team Barcelona (yes, they're meeting again).

Tournaments

Other indicators of Drogba's successes are tournaments such as the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup. In terms of goals, Eto'o was the better man (5 goals) as opposed to Drogba (3 goals). In the quarter final match between Cameroon and Ivory Coast, though, Eto'o missed a crucial penalty in the final shootout, while Drogba netted the winning goal for his country. He also took the Ivory Coast by the hand onto the finals, which they ultimately lost.

The Ivory Coast has been the most promising African football country in recent times, mainly thanks to Drogba. Unfortunately and despite their impressive display of football, the West-Africans didn't get far in the World Cup. But again, Drogba showed his strong football skills. Obviously, Cameroon wasn't even around in Germany, so Eto'o had nothing to show for.

With Eto'o out of play and Drogba in form, the latter could very well be the next African Footballer of the Year. He's had to give way to his Cameroonian counterpart for three years. Maybe 2006 and 2007 will be the years in wich Drogba gets his revenge.