Initially a sports award , the inaugural winner was Ghana 's Abedi Pele in 1992 . The only non-footballers to win the award was track and field athlete Frankie Fredericks in 1993 , and long-distance track and road running athlete Haile Gebrselassie in 1998 . The Zambia national football team were posthumous winners of the award in 1994 , following the plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean a year previous . The award became centred around football from 2001 onwards , Cameroon 's Patrick M'Boma was the last person to win it as a sports award
plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean
1993 Zambia national football team plane crash
BBC African Footballer of the Year