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African football has reached another level since the turn of the millennium. You can find players from the continent scattered all over the world’s best and most competitive teams.
The stars of Africa have also given the game some of its defining, iconic moments. Roger Milla and George Weah kick-started the revolution in the 1990s, and their legacies are in good hands even today.
But who are the best African players? Who are the ones most deserving of the world’s adoration? As we reach the quarter-mark of the 21st century, GOAL has ranked the top 25 to this point:
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AFP
25Asamoah Gyan
Asamoah Gyan isn’t the best African player of the 21st century, but he may very well be among the most important. His heroics during Ghana’s run to the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals inspired the entire continent and ought to have ended with the Black Stars becoming the first African team to ever advance to the semi-finals had Luis Suarez not got himself involved.
At club level, Gyan enjoyed fruitful spells in Italy, France and England, before playing out the second half of his career largely in Asia, with time in Turkey and his homeland scattered in between.
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24Youssef En-Nesyri
In 20 years, people are going to look back at Morocco’s 2022 World Cup run while watching compilations of Youssef En-Nesyri and decree that he was a one-of-a-kind striker. He jumped over nine feet in the air to score the goal which knocked out Portugal in the quarter-finals that winter, for crying out loud.
As is the case with every storied striker, En-Nesyri spent a good chunk of time at Sevilla and won a couple of Europa Leagues for his troubles. Nowadays, he’s trying to relight the fire of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce, though somehow goals seemed to come easier to him in Spain.
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23Sulley Muntari
Imagine playing so well for prime-Barclays era Portsmouth that after one season, Jose Mourinho wants to sign you for an Inter team that would eventually win the treble. That just so happened to one of Ghana’s finest ever, Sulley Muntari.
His energy and physicality made Muntari a typical Mourinho player, someone who wasn’t afraid to dig in deep and do the dirty work when necessary in the name of victory. He was dependable, despite his penchant for picking up a needless booking here and there. That rarely mattered to Muntari’s teams, nonetheless.
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22Yassine Bounou
You can take all of Yassine Bounou’s accomplishments, all his accolades, and all his medals regardless of their colour and make a compelling case that he is the best African goalkeeper of all time.
The bottom line is very, very few men from Bounou’s home continent have been considered among the world’s best the way he was in his pomp at Sevilla and with the Morocco national team. It’s that simple. He was and is a fantastic goalie, no questions asked.
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21Kevin-Prince Boateng
The swagger Kevin-Prince Boateng had all throughout his career was hard for anyone to match. He was so often the coolest guy on the pitch and in the dressing room. Even today, he’s doing the rounds on videos and podcasts spinning the yarn of tales like a master storyteller.
Despite lighting up stadiums while at the likes of AC Milan, Tottenham and even briefly Barcelona (yeah, remember that?), it’s a shame that Boateng’s legacy at international level with Ghana was limited to only 14 senior appearances due to a falling out with their football association.
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20Kwadwo Asamoah
A Ghanaian legend, Kwadwo Asamoah enjoyed almost the perfect Serie A career. He made his name at Udinese and earned a move up to Juventus, where he enjoyed six glorious years of titles and near-misses in Europe before signing off with short-lived stints at Inter and Cagliari. That’s a co-ownership move to Empoli away from living the Italian dream, right there!
Asamoah hung up his boots in 2021 as one of the most decorated players in African history, with 13 pieces of silverware in his own cabinet along with a string of personal honours.
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19Salomon Kalou
You need a man who can play anywhere in a front three and won’t complain about playing time? You need prime Salomon Kalou, peak Chelsea’s break-glass-in-case-of-emergency multi-purpose attacker.
Even beyond that tremendous time at Stamford Bridge, Kalou was quite the goal-threat in the Netherlands with Feyenoord, France with Lille and Germany with Hertha Berlin. For a laugh, he even spent time in Brazil with Botafogo. For the plot, presumably.
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AFP
18Benni McCarthy
Benni McCarthy is widely heralded as the greatest South African player in history, and the case for it is pretty watertight. He was the star striker for the Porto team who stunned Europe and won the 2003-04 Champions League under Jose Mourinho’s management, bagged goals around Europe before strutting his stuff in the Premier League, and remains his nation’s all-time leading scorer to this day.
Nowadays, McCarthy is more well known for being the striker coach Erik ten Hag appointed upon his arrival at Old Trafford in 2022, but has since gotten into disagreements with through the media.
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17Victor Osimhen
Sure, things may have ended sourly between Victor Osimhen and Napoli (and another chapter in that story could still come when his loan at Galatasaray ends), but he was still the striker that fired them to their first-ever Scudetto without Diego Maradona in the team.
Osimhen’s peak years remain ahead of him and he should rocket his way up these rankings as his career advances. Considering how stacked Nigeria’s ranks are, international triumphs ought to fall his way at some point, too.
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16John Obi Mikel
One of football’s under-appreciated heroes, John Obi Mikel’s career, particularly in England, made for quite the soap opera. Manchester United thought they had signed him at first and even unveiled him in a red shirt, but after a lengthy legal battle over several months, he was confirmed as a Chelsea player in 2006.
At first, Mikel was sometimes seen as a liability and a youngster with plenty to learn. But over his 11 years in west London, he made practice perfect and goes down as one of the Blues’ most beloved players of the modern era, one of the club’s defining stars from Africa whose opinion is still held in high regard to this day.
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15Jay-Jay Okocha
Right, this one’s cheating a little since the majority of Jay-Jay Okocha’s prime came in the nineties, but he still had a huge impact on football, particularly representing Nigeria and Africa, into the noughties as well.
The continent’s greatest dribbler rubbed shoulders with a young Ronaldinho during his years at Paris Saint-Germain, before ultimately creating his defining legacy in club football – becoming the definitive Barclaysman streets-won’t-forget at Sam Allardyce’s Bolton Wanderers. He was pretty super for the Super Eagles at international level too, yeah.
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AFP
14Frederic Kanoute
Whatever happened to gigantic strikers with velcro-like chest hair to make the ball stick? Bring back those kinds of strikers, we say.
Frederic Kanoute fit that archetype to a tee, one of the game’s silkiest and smoothest target men who could do more than just head the ball and hold it up. Alongside the bucketload of goals he scored in his career, Kanoute was one of the most influential players in the history of the Mali international team, leading their charge to a fourth-place finish at the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations, where he won the Player of the Tournament award.
Those of you who adored ‘Revista de La Liga’ back in the day will no doubt remember his time at Sevilla, where he grabbed 137 goals and won six trophies.
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13Achraf Hakimi
One of the best African right-backs of all time, Achraf Hakimi may crash his way into more wide-ranging debates by the time his career comes to an end. He’s still in his mid-twenties and, unlike Gyan, did manage to lead his nation of Morocco into the last four of a World Cup.
Born and raised in Spain, coming through Real Madrid’s academy ranks, Hakimi was nevertheless determined to play for the country of his parents. In addition to his national-team heroics, he has swept up trophies with Los Blancos, Borussia Dortmund, Inter and now Paris Saint-Germain, and has hardly been a bit-part player in those triumphs either.
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12Lauren
Featuring as the starting right-back for Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ season would be just enough cause for including Lauren on a list like this. Fortunately, he has more of a CV to back up his inclusion as well.
Seven trophies with the Gunners, plus one with Portsmouth, also strengthens his case from a club perspective. Two Africa Cup of Nations and an Olympic gold medal with Cameroon take him right over the top. A fabulous player who had a big impact on winning teams.
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AFP
11Seydou Keita
Do you know how hard it is to have played for Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona? You essentially had to be an all-time legend of the game in order to even get a sniff.
It’s to Seydou Keita’s credit that he played 188 times for Barca between 2008 and 2012, including 56 times alone during their famed 2010-11 season which ended in Champions League glory.
Whether screening the back four or marching from box to box, you could rely on Keita to get the job done. In this case, you could rely on him to rub shoulders with Lionel Messi and belong in his company.
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10Kolo Toure
No African player has more Premier League appearances than Kolo Toure’s 353, and goodness me was he excellent for most of those. His longevity saw him become one of the youngest core players of Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ team – aged 22 to 23 and playing 37 of their 38 unbeaten matches – join Manchester City to become part of the team that won their first title in a generation, and then carved out cult status at Liverpool as a favourite for Brendan Rodgers.
Over a decade of contributions to the Ivory Coast national team paid off for Toure when they won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, ending their 23-year wait for continental glory, and only Didier Zokora (123) earned more caps than his total of 120.
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9Emmanuel Adebayor
There deserves to be a film about Emmanuel Adebayor’s career. Quite easily the finest player ever produced by Togo, you’d be remiss for thinking he wasn’t an early prototype of Erling Haaland, such was his incredible agility for someone so tall and strong.
Adebayor was one of many rough diamonds in Ligue 1 sanded down by Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. How did he repay the Frenchman? By forcing a move to Manchester City and then running the length of the entire pitch to celebrate in front of Gunners fans. And then heading to Tottenham. And then jumping around Europe before wrapping up his playing days in Paraguay. Honestly, that is sensational.
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8Michael Essien
There’s a reason why Mourinho was so desperate for Chelsea to break the bank to sign Michael Essien from Lyon back in 2005. He was a rare type of midfielder who could do it all, someone to crash the box before sprinting back to defend his own, one who dictated the tempo of the game with his energy alone. The nickname of ‘The Bison’ was perfectly befitting of the Ghanaian.
His special relationship with the ‘Special One’ earned him a loan to Real Madrid in 2013, who benefitted from his experience and positional versatility. Essien aged gracefully and spent his latter years travelling to all corners of the globe – from Greece to Indonesia to Azerbaijan – for the love of the game. It’s a pity he only finished up at the Africa Cup of Nations twice.
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7Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Pretty much everywhere Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has gone in his career, he has scored goals at an obscene rate. During his prime, he proved a mightily capable successor to Robert Lewandowski at Borussia Dortmund, and then extended his legacy by becoming a fan-favourite at Arsenal, pretty much singlehandedly winning the young Gunners their only trophy of the Mikel Arteta era so far.
Even in the twilight of his career, the Gabonese hitman made himself out to be a cult hero at Barcelona, again acting as the trusted senior head in the room in a team full of youngsters, and returned to Marseille in France, grabbing 30 goals before leaving Europe for the Saudi Pro League.
Aubameyang’s Gabon sides haven’t always been blessed with comparative quality, so his participation at five Africa Cup of Nations and the 2012 Olympics is nothing to be sniffed at.
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6Riyad Mahrez
When Leicester City miraculously won the 2015-16 Premier League, while England was crowning Jamie Vardy as the fairytale’s main character, and N’Golo Kante was being hailed as the bargain of the century (more on that here), Riyad Mahrez was being voted by his peers as the PFA Players’ Player Of the Year. That’s how good he was in that season.
The Algerian still had more to give to the Foxes, too, before leaving a couple of years later for Manchester City, where he overcame a tricky start to prove the ideal inside-forward successor to touchline wingers Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling.
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5Sadio Mane
There wasn’t a single goal that prime Sadio Mane couldn’t score. Cut inside off the left? Sure. Bulldoze inside from the right? You bet. A thumper from distance? Of course. Tap-in? Check. Towering header? His understated specialty. A piledriver from 30 yards? Oh, yes.
His wing partnership with Mohamed Salah at Liverpool was the modern incarnation of Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben at Bayern Munich, with Africa’s two finest players of recent years working together to rule the world. The shame for Mane is he was seen as the secondary player in that pairing.
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4Yaya Toure
The second half of football’s most-fun chant, Yaya Toure had some job having to live up to the standards set by his brother, Kolo. And yet he somehow proved to be even better, despite middling about in Ukraine with the now-defunct Metalurh Donetsk while his older brother was making himself an Invincible. His later audition to superstardom as a role player with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona proved the perfect entree to protagonist displays.
Toure was already a fine defensive player before he decided to stretch his long, gangly legs and decide to become one of the world’s best box-to-box midfielders. Then there’s the fact that all of a sudden he just scored a free-kick every other week during Manchester City’s 2013-14 title-winning season, ending the year with 20 goals in the Premier League alone. What a breath-taking career arc, honestly.
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3Mohamed Salah
When all is said and done, Mohamed Salah could have one hell of a case to top this list. Alas, he has to settle for third for now. Sorry, Mo.
It would have been difficult to imagine him even placing on this list after his underwhelming spell at Chelsea in the mid-2010s came to an end and he was deemed a flop on these shores. But since returning to the Premier League with Liverpool, he’s surpassed all expectations and broken every milestone imaginable on his way to immortality.
The rate at which Salah scores is ludicrously normalised. He is a living legend and shouldn’t be overlooked when discussing the stars of today, let alone in wider-ranging lists like this.
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2Didier Drogba
Somehow, someway, the great Didier Drogba has become underrated since his retirement. A quick glance at a couple of down seasons on his Wikipedia page is not the truth serum the deniers of his greatness want the world to believe.
He was your favourite defender’s worst nightmare. He was the ultimate big-game player, one of football’s rare clutch superstars. Where there was a header to be had, Drogba would win it and thump it into the top corner for good measure. And perhaps most importantly, he had the best name for a commentator to scream – that’s the real quiz.
The real disappointment of Drogba’s career is he never showed up randomly for a Chelsea game bald the way he is nowadays. Imagine if a Blackburn Rovers or a Wigan Athletic turned up at Stamford Bridge and all of a sudden his long locks were replaced by a hard-as-nails smooth head. That’s a five-goal haul right there.
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1Samuel Eto’o
Behold, the only man to win back-to-back trebles across two different teams. Samuel Eto’o was meant to be a mere footnote in Barcelona’s €46m part-exchange deal to acquire Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but turned out being the best player in the deal.
The Cameroonian was both a great scorer of goals and scorer of great goals, first rising to prominence as the star attraction of minnows Mallorca off the coast of Spain. From there, Real Madrid – where he had a short spell with in his youth – and Barca fought over him to become the face of a new era, and he eventually plumped for Barca.
After winning the lot at Camp Nou, Eto’o won the lot at San Siro with Inter. Streets-won’t-forget spells with Anzhi Makhachkala, Chelsea, and Everton were followed by streets-will-forget stints at Sampdoria, Antalyaspor, Konyaspor and Qatar SC.
Perhaps most importantly, Eto’o has the international achievements to aid his case as a two-time Africa Cup of Nations winner and an Olympic gold medallist. That is why he’s his continent’s finest footballer of this century.
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