The Premier League has been handled to the abilities of among the finest African footballers of all time over time.
And there have been numerous targets scored within the English high flight by Africa’s largest superstars.
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From Mohamed Salah to Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure, we’ve witnessed some unimaginable gamers grace the league.
And right here, talkSPORT.com has taken a take a look at the highest 10 highest-scoring gamers in Premier League historical past…
10. Nwankwo Kanu (54 targets, 273 matches)
Nearly all of the opposite gamers on this checklist made their names within the top-flight throughout the final 15 years, however Kanu’s peak was earlier than then.
Arsenal signed the ahead in 1999 from Inter Milan for simply over £6million, and he was a giant hit.
He revamped 100 top-flight appearances for the Gunners and scored 30 targets, serving to the membership win the Premier League twice.
He left in 2004 however remained in England, becoming a member of West Brom after which Portsmouth, however he solely scored 24 extra targets throughout six seasons earlier than Pompey have been relegated in 2010, and he retired in 2012.
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9. Yaya Toure (62 targets, 230 matches)
Given Toure was a central midfielder, his numbers within the Premier League are much more spectacular.
The Ivorian arrived from Barcelona in 2010 for round £25m, however many individuals felt Metropolis had overpaid, and so they could not have been extra incorrect.
Over the subsequent eight years, Toure grew to become the perfect box-to-box midfielder, possessing elegant method and an unimaginable engine.
He performed his half in some good sides, however nobody will ever neglect his 2013/14 marketing campaign, as he scored a staggering 20 top-flight targets to assist win Metropolis the Premier League trophy.
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8. Wilfried Zaha (68 targets, 305 matches)
Zaha may go down as one of many Premier League’s most underrated wingers of recent occasions.
There have been occasions when it appeared he was holding Crystal Palace within the league on his personal, and he was usually the membership’s high goalscorer.
Throughout his final 5 years in England, the Ivorian registered double figures for targets 3 times.
Sadly, a transfer to a giant English membership by no means materialised after his preliminary switch to Manchester United failed earlier than returning to Palace.
However in 2023, he determined it was time for one thing new and joined Galatasaray, the place he scored within the Champions League at Outdated Trafford to silence his former membership.
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7. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (69 targets, 143 matches)
After we consider Aubameyang, we in all probability bear in mind Mikel Arteta throwing him out of Arsenal and his Chelsea struggles, however earlier than all that, he was a high striker.
His goals-to-games ratio is unimaginable, and underneath Arsene Wenger, Unai Emery and Arteta, the Gabonese worldwide scored loads.
Aubameyang joined the Gunners from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018, and he scored ten occasions in his first 13 league video games.
He adopted that up with two years of 20+ earlier than his numbers dropped and issues began to crop up.
Ultimately, Arteta determined to place the workforce first, and Aubameyang was shipped out, however we should not neglect how good he was for two-and-a-half years.
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6. Riyad Mahrez (82 targets, 284 matches)
Treble-winner Mahrez can be among the many high African scorers after an unimaginable profession, scoring a complete of 82 targets for Leicester and Man Metropolis.
Signed for simply over £400,000 by Leicester in 2014 from Le Harve, the Algerian worldwide performed an enormous position within the Foxes’ shock title win throughout the 2015/16 season.
He scored an unimaginable 17 occasions as Leicester shocked everybody to turn into champions of England.
Mahrez joined Man Metropolis in the summertime of 2018 and have become a key participant for Pep Guardiola out on the best.
The winger proved to be a deadly finisher and scored all sorts of targets as he added increasingly more trophies to his private haul earlier than departing for Saudi Arabia in 2023.
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5. Yakubu Aiyegbeni (95 targets, 252 matches)
‘Feed the Yak, and he’ll rating’ grew to become a very fashionable chant at Everton whereas Yakubu performed for the Toffees.
The Nigerian ahead spent 9 years within the Premier League and performed for Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Everton and Blackburn Rovers.
At his peak, he was a high striker who scored over double figures in six top-flight seasons.
Yakubu is probably one of many least modern names on this checklist, however he was a born goalscorer and is a cult hero in any respect of his earlier Premier League sides.
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4. Emmanuel Adebayor (97 purposes, 241 matches)
Adebayor is fourth after spells at Man Metropolis and north London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham.
The Togolese worldwide initially joined the Gunners in 2006 from Monaco and struggled to make it into the workforce.
However his breakthrough yr proved to be the 2007/08 season when he scored a staggering 24 targets earlier than becoming a member of Metropolis in 2009.
His most notorious second got here whereas at Metropolis when he scored in opposition to Arsenal and charged to the opposite finish of the pitch to rejoice in entrance of the travelling Gunners followers, sparking offended scenes within the away finish.
Adebayor then left for a short spell with Actual Madrid earlier than returning to play for Spurs, that means many Arsenal followers aren’t huge followers of their former striker.
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3. Didier Drogba (104 targets, 254 matches)
When it was Drogba’s day, there was little any Premier League defender may do about it.
The Ivorian was an elite striker, and after becoming a member of Chelsea from Marseille in 2004, he helped the Blues win three Premier League titles throughout his first spell with the membership.
Drogba additionally performed an enormous position in Chelsea’s first Champions League triumph, scoring a late equaliser in opposition to Bayern Munich after which slotting house the successful penalty within the shootout.
The ahead then departed for a spell at Galatasaray earlier than Jose Mourinho introduced him again, and he performed yet another season for the Blues, successful a fourth league title.
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2. Sadio Mane (111 targets, 263 matches)
Salah’s former Liverpool teammate, Mane, additionally makes the checklist after years of tormenting defences underneath Jurgen Klopp.
The now Al-Nassr ahead sits in second place within the all-time goalscorer rankings for African gamers within the Premier League.
Mane initially joined Southampton in 2014 from RB Salzburg and scored the quickest hat-trick in historical past in opposition to Aston Villa (2 minutes and 56 seconds).
Liverpool signed him in 2016, and Mane grew to become a key a part of the Premier League’s finest attacking trio, with Salah and Roberto Firmino.
As a unit, they scored 338 targets and offered 139 assists as Liverpool gained the Premier League and have become European champions.
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1. Mohamed Salah (175 targets, 284 matches)
Liverpool celebrity Salah is the highest-scoring African participant in Premier League historical past by a great distance.
The Egyptian has dominated the highest flight ever since signing for the Reds in 2017 following a short stint with Chelsea.
Salah grew to become the first-ever participant to attain 32 targets in a single season in his first yr at Anfield, and he has netted a minimum of 18 targets each marketing campaign since.
Solely two of his league strikes got here for Chelsea, whereas the remainder have been scored for Liverpool.
He’s the membership’s all-time high goalscorer within the Premier League, sitting above Robbie Fowler and Steven Gerrard within the rankings.
And there are not any indicators of him slowing down, regardless of his future on the membership being up within the air.
He is now turn into Liverpool’s third all-time high scorer and he additionally broke Wayne Rooney’s document for essentially the most video games each scoring and helping – transferring as much as 37 in whole.
On high of that, he made some Premier League historical past in December, turning into the primary participant ever to achieve 10+ targets and 10+ assists earlier than Christmas Day.
He continues to set the usual and there may be positively an argument to say Salah is among the league’s greatest-ever gamers.
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