El Hadji Diouf was BBC African Footballer of the Year for 2002

The preliminary round of votes ended on 8 December and after receiving over 6,000 replies, the top three candidates have now entered a second round of voting which will end on 31 December.

After collating the votes, your top three players over the last 12 months are:

Jay-Jay Okocha (Nigeria),

Stephen Appiah (Ghana) and,

Samuel Eto'o Fils (Cameroon).

So which one do you think deserves to be the BBC African Footballer of the Year?

Before the end of the month, you can use the form on the right to send in your final nomination.

The winner will be announced before the start of the African Nations Cup finals in Tunisia on 24 January.

Only one entry per person is allowed in each round. Anyone who sends more than one vote will be disqualified.

The ball is now firmly in your half of the pitch, so get a slice of the action and pick Africa's best player for 2003!