SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda's African Message) - A lot has happened in African basketball over the course of the past 12 months, but a number of players and coaches’ performances haven’t gone unnoticed.

While some entered the continent’s basketball scene in style, others reaffirmed the positives they have to offer to the game across Africa.

In retrospective, here is a list of Africa’s best players and coaches of 2016.

Manhique

Although Will Voigt - the head coach of Nigeria’s men national team - has reminded everyone how competitive the Western Africans have become during the Rio Olympics, and Manuel Silva led Angola to their first Africa U18 Championship title in three decades, Leonel Manhique made his introduction in a remarkable fashion.

Leonel Manhique

Manhique may not be the most recognisable face among coaches, but the Mozambican play caller continues to make his name heard and talked about in African basketball.

First, the 33-year-old led his native country to the 3rd-Place at FIBA Africa U18 Women’s Championship last August in Cairo, Egypt.

A few months later, in early December, Manhique - an energetic and communicative coach - motivated a number of Mozambican internationals - some of whom coming from maternity leave and injuries - to featuring for local champions Ferroviario de Maputo during the FIBA Africa Champions Cup for Women 2016.

Ferroviario de Maputo lost the FIBA Africa ACCW Final to InterClube de Luanda, but Manhique left his fingerprints and tenacity on the sidelines.

Can he end up coaching Mozambique's national team? Well, he has never hidden his intentions of taking charge of the team.

De Sousa and Elghannam

Tarek Tahan Elghannam - born on 6 October 1978 - and Silvio De Sousa - born on 7 October 1998 - have more in common than their two-decade age might suggest.

While the former was huge in helping El-Ahly winning the FIBA Africa Champions Cup 2016 title two weeks ago in Cairo, the latter wasn’t named FIBA Africa U18 MVP by accident.

At the age of 38, Elghannam won a major continental trophy his playing career. As well as leading all FIBA Africa ACC 2016 players with a tournament-high 2.5 blocks per game and averaging 10 points and 11 rebounds, the 2.11m center who last represented his country at FIBA AfroBasket 2007, was named to the All-Tournament team. He did a bit of everything, helping El Ahly win their first-ever Africa trophy.

When I interviewed him last week, he recalled that "This is the most important title in my career. It is a great reward and gift to end my playing career next season."

He was named to the All-Tournament team, and I asked him how he managed to stay so focused for much of the tournament. He thanked coach El Ahly's head coach Tarek Khairy:  

"He is one of the reasons that I played at such high level. He always supports me."

Meanwhile, De Sousa had a busy summer. First, he made his debut with the Angola men’s national team at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade, Serbia, before taking the FIBA Africa U18 by storm in Kigali, Rwanda.

De Sousa - along with Bruno Fernandes and Childe Dundao - was unparalleled dominating the youth competition at ends of the floor.

Julio Chitunda
FIBA

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