As Lionel Messi hits yet another landmark at Barcelona, Goal pay tribute to Africa’s top scorers at Europe’s giants.
Lionel Messi hit a new landmark this weekend when he scored his 643rd goal for Barcelona, equalling the record set by Pele for goals scored for a single club.
The Brazil great, of course, achieved his feat with Santos in his homeland, before he departed South America to sample a new experience in New York.
Both greats achieved remarkable hauls for two of the world’s top clubs, but which of Africa’s finest goal-getters have come closest to matching their feats?
In this feature, we profile the African players who have netted the most goals at Europe’s biggest clubs.
While Sadio Mane’s 87-goal haul for the Reds is a superb tally—and is more than most African top scorers at major European clubs—he’s eclipsed by the achievements of Mohamed Salah at Anfield.
The Egypt superstar has registered a remarkable 110 goals for the Merseyside giants since arriving at the club, more than club legends such as John Barnes, Kevin Keegan and Luis Suarez, putting him joint 14th in the Reds’ all-time goal standings.
Messi’s former teammate Samuel Eto’o, who spent the best part of five years with the Argentine superstar at the Camp Nou, is Africa’s all-time top scorer at Barcelona.
He registered 108 goals in 144 La Liga outings for Barca—an outstanding ratio—although his return is still eclipsed by Messi’s unbelievable tally of 447 goals in 493 league games.
Laszlo Kubala, Luis Suarez and Cesar Rodriguez are the other players to complete Barca’s top five all-time La Liga scorers.
Unsurprisingly, Didier Drogba is Chelsea’s all-time top scoring African player, having netted 164 goals across two stints with the Londoners.
Having signed for the club in 2004, he remained for eight years—winning a host of silverware including the Champions League—before retuning in 2014 to lift the Premier League again.
Only three players—including Frank Lampard—have netted more for Chelsea in their history.
He may be struggling right now, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has earned himself a special place in the heart of Arsenal fans since arriving at the club from Borussia Dortmund in 2018.
The Gabon striker is currently on 75 goals for the Gunners, although he would surely have been expecting a greater return on his strikes, having lifted just the FA Cup and the Community Shield since arriving at the Emirates Stadium.
It remains to be seen whether the 31-year-old has many more goals in the tank for Mikel Arteta’s troubled Londoners.
Completing the London trilogy, Spurs enjoyed the services of a talented African frontman of their own in Emmanuel Adebayor, who arrived at White Hart Lane having previously represented both Arsenal and Manchester City.
Ade found the net in fits and starts for the Lilywhites, and while he’s remembered fondly by some portions of the strike rate, a goals-to-games ratio identical to that of Roman Pavlyuchenko tells its own story.
United have been served by many great goalscorers, but Sir Alex Ferguson’s aversion to African players means they haven’t the services of too many continental greats.
Quinton Fortune of South Africa nonetheless eked out seven years for the Red Devils after arriving in 1999, proving to be a useful squad player.
Remarkably, he’s United’s all-time top scoring African player, having netted 11 goals for the club!
Like United, Real hasn’t had a particularly strong history of African players, although things could have been entirely different had they not sold a young Samuel Eto’o to Real Mallorca!
Their all-time top African scorer is an unlikely candidate, with defensive midfielder Mahamadou Diarra requiring just four goals to earn himself a spot in this list.
The Mali international—one of Africa’s underrated greats—netted four goals for Los Merengues, winning La Liga in 2007 and 2008.
One of City’s all-time greats, Yaya Toure was one of the key figures in the Sky Blues breaking into the upper echelon of English football—ending their long wait for silverware—and establishing them as a European superclub.
He wasn’t necessarily Pep Guardiola’s cup of team, but he was influential in some major successes across his eight years with City, netting 82 goals in all competitions of which 62 were in the league.
PSG’s recent history has largely overshadowed their past, with three of the club’s four all-time top scorers—Edinson Cavani, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kylian Mbappe having arrived at the club since their Qatari owners changed the complexion of the club.
Sixth on the overall standings is Algeria’s Mustapha Dahleb, who netted 98 goals for the Parisians between 1974 and 1984.
He was PSG’s top scorer in Ligue 1 history for 30 years—with 85 league goals—before being eclipsed by Zlatan in 2015.
Bayern’s greatest African player—Sammy Kuffour—is also their all-time top African goalscorer.
The centre-back was—unsurprisingly—not prolific, but his seven goals in 175 league games was enough to secure him a spot on this list.
Kuffour’s return is some way off Gerd Muller’s 365 league goals for the club, but he nonetheless enjoyed a successful stint with the Bavarians, winning six Bundesliga titles and the Champions League in 2001.
Source: goal.com