CAMEROON legend Roger Milla has been chosen the best African football player ever. In a public poll conducted by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to celebrate the approach of its 50th anniversary, Milla received 2,246 votes by Internet users. Egypt's Mahmoud El-Khatib, Hossam Hassan, Saleh Selim, Hani Ramzi and Hassan Shehata were on the list. The complete list of the 30 best African players in the last 50 years is as follows: 1- Roger MILLA (Cameroon) 2246 2- Mahmoud EL-KHATIB (Egypt) 2165 3- Hossam HASSAN (Egypt) 2011 4- Samuel ETO'O (Cameroon)1840 5- Abedi PELE (Ghana)1783 6- George WEAH (Liberia)1604 7- Didier DROGBA (Côte D'Ivoire ) 1467 8- Nwankwo KANU (Nigeria) 1209 9- Rabeh MADJER (Algeria) 1176 10- Kalusha BWALYA (Zambia) 1073 11- Michael ESSIEN (Ghana) 996 12- Austin OKOCHA (Nigeria) 921 13- Saleh SELIM (Egypt) 850 14- Lahcène LALMAS (Algeria) 791 15- Bennedict McCARTHY (South Africa) 782 16- El Hadj DIOUF (Senegal) 711 17- Noureddine NAYBET (Morocco) 692 18- Rashidi YAKINI (Nigeria) 649 19- Hany RAMZI (Egypt) 608 20- Hassan SHEHATA (Egypt) 605 21- Lucas RADEBE (South AFRICA) 557 22- Tarek DIAB (Tunisia) 541 23- Mohamed AL-TIMOUMI (Maroc) 539 24- Anthony YEBOAH (Ghana) 511 25- Salif KEITA (Mali) 476 26- Karim ABDEL-RAZAK (Ghana) 430 27- Samel Osei KUFFOUR (Ghana) 368 28- Lakhdar BELOUMI (Algeria) 305 29- Rigobert SONG (Cameroon) 283 30- Nasr Eldeen (JAKSA) Abbas (Sudan) 202 Milla, who starred in three World Cups with the Indomitable Lions (1982, 1990 and 1994), polled 2,246 points to beat Egypt's Mahmoud El-Khatib, who recorded 2,165 points. El-Khatib remains the only Egyptian to win the Best African Player award, in 1983, and was captain of both Ahli and the national team before retiring in 1987. Hossam Hassan, the bad boy of Egyptian football and one of the world's most internationally capped players, played for Ahli, Zamalek, Misri and is presently in Tersana. He collected 2,011 votes. The 41-year-old's last outstanding achievement was silencing his critics at the African Nations Cup trophy in Cairo in 2006 by scoring against Congo. It was the second time that Hassan had lifted the African Nations Cup trophy. The first was in Burkina Faso in 1998 when he was named the tournament's top scorer with seven goals. Hassan has currently played over 150 international games. Egyptian icon Saleh Selim came in 13th place in the 30-man list. He won 850 votes. Selim was one of the first Egyptians to play abroad -- for Graz in Austria -- later becoming the president of Ahli, voted the African club of the century. Selim was one of the best players in the 50's and 60's and won 19 titles with Ahli. He moved to Graz in 1963. He became so popular that he started an acting career which brought him even more glamour, and quit football in 1967. Selim died at 71 five years ago. Egypt's Hani Ramzi collected 608 votes to ensure 19th place on the list. Ramzi played for Ahli before moving to Europe. He featured for FC Saarbrucken in the German second division but spent most of his career at Bundesliga clubs Werder Bremen and Kaiserslautern. He also played at Neuchatel Xamax in Switzerland. Ramzi was capped 124 times and played in the 1998 African Nations Cup winning side and at the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy. He retired two years ago and is now the head coach of Enppi in the Egyptian league. At 37, he is Egypt's youngest coach. Egypt's national team head coach Hassan Shehata is the last Egyptian name on the list. With only three votes less than Ramzi, Shehata finished in 20th place with 605 points. Shehata was the only Egyptian player on the list not to play for Ahli. In the seventies and eighties, he was Zamalek's star mid-field striker. He coached several clubs in the premier league before taking over as head coach of the Egyptian national team in 2005. With Shehata at the helm, the team took the African Nations Cup in 2006. CAF had initially planned to publish the name of only one player on a daily basis from 9 January until 8 February 2007, the date of the creation of CAF. But following repeated requests from the media about the identity of the players, CAF decided to publish the integral list earlier than scheduled. CAF is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a series of activities in 2007 so as to pay tribute to those who played various roles since the creation of the organisation in Khartoum, Sudan. CAF will return to its birth place in Khartoum for its 28th General Assembly between 10-12 February. A forum on the future of African football and workshop involving the general secretaries of CAF member national associations will be organised by African football's continental body. A friendly between Egypt and Sweden will be played on 7 February in Cairo to raise funds for charity. In addition, the 2006 Super Cup final, which pits the winner of the African Champions league and winner of the CAF Confederation Cup, will be played on 18 February between Ahli of Egypt and Etoile du Sahel Tunisia in Addis Ababa. CAF founding members are Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Africa.
