Nyasa Big Bullets have short-listed 18 players that will battle in six categories of the club’s awards gala night at the Comesa Hall in Blantyre on December 23.

Richard Chimbamba, Clever Nkungula and Rabson Chiyenda are nominees for the best goalkeeper award while Gomezgani Chirwa, Precious Sambani and Kesten Simbi have been earmarked for the best defender accolade.

The best midfielder nominees are Chimwemwe Idana, Ernest Petro and Frank Willard whereas Babatunde Adepoju, Lanjesi Nkhoma and Hassan Kajoke are vying for the best striker honours.

Chigoga: The technical panel used their parameters

On the other hand, Patrick Mwaungulu, Kesten Simbi and Thomas Magombo will battle for the discovery of the season.

The trio of Chirwa, Adepoju and Mwaungulu has also been nominated for the player of the season award.

Bullets chief administration officer Albert Chigoga yesterday said the club’s technical panel nominated candidates for each category and it is now up to football fans to vote for their prefered players.

“The technical panel used their parameters to select the nominees per category. As you know, the technical panel is better placed to know and understand the contribution of each player to the team,” he said.

Chigoga explained that fans can vote for their preferred players through a code representing each category together with the name of their choice to the club’s 441 mobile platform.

Football analyst Charles Nyirenda welcomed Bullets’ decision to come up with a third edition of the awards after a two-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, saying it will motivate the players to work even harder next season.

However, he said the in-house activity could have been better if Bullets had sought the views of other stakeholders such as the media to filter any elements of bias that might have crept in.

Said Nyirenda: “They did a good job to let their technical panel come up with the nominees as they know better parameters of choosing the best players.

“However, the coaches also have the players they personally like and such might get in the way of their professional judgement. For neutrality, the media could have helped to make the nominations perfect.”

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