There has been plenty of good news for African football in 2009, and the list of contenders for Score4Africa's prestigious awards is a long one. It features on one level some of the biggest names in the game, and on another some of the hardest-working people in grassroots football, and social development, you will find anywhere in the world.

Samuel Eto'o led his Cameroon team to the World Cup finals, scoring the final goal of their qualifying campaign in Morocco last weekend to top off a year in which his most high-profile goal was the one that knocked Manchester United out of their stride in the Champions League final in Rome last May.

Eto'o has since left Barcelona, though he will be back there next week with his new club, Inter, in the outstanding tie of this year's Champions League to date. Among his team-mates is Sulley Muntari, another who has had a great year for club and country, helping Inter to the Serie A title while starring alongside Michael Essien for Ghana's Black Stars, who became the first team to qualify from Africa for next summer's finals, the first to be staged on African soil since the tournament was born 80 years ago. Among Eto's opponents will be two more Africans in Barca's all-conquering line-up – Yaya Toure of Ivory Coast and Seydou Keita of Mali. Toure and his brother, Manchester City's Kolo, will also be at the World Cup along with two men from Chelsea, Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba. Yet another highlight from 2009 was Drogba's goal at Wembley in the FA Cup

Final, helping Chelsea to victory over an Everton team that featured Joseph Yobo, who must have thought he would not make it to South Africa next summer, until Nigeria's amazing final-day escapades earned them a place in the finals at Tunisia's expense.

Drogba was in the headlines again recently, but not for scoring a winner or failing to stay on his feet. The Ivorian, who arguably has overtaken Kanu as the most high-profile African player to have played in England, signed a new advertising contract with Pepsi and pledged the entire £3m he earned from the deal to the setting-up of a hospital and orphanage in Ivory Coast. Niall Quinn, the Sunderland chairman who famously donated his testimonial money to charity, described Drogba's decision as 'sheer class' and one that would 'help counter the belief that the Premier League is packed full of mercenaries'.

Quinn made one other important point. 'Of course a one-off gesture cannot sustain a hospital,' Quinn said. 'They always need funds.' His point is constantly made by experts in the field of development in Africa. Football-related projects appear to be springing up everywhere. If they are not sustainable, though, what is the point?

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