The UEFA Champions League is the biggest creme de la creme of club football in the World.
African footballers who have played in the competition’s most successful team, Real Madrid, maybe few but African players’ reputation is not limited.
From the days of Finidi George, and Nwankwo Kanu at Ajax to now when the duo of Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane are having it good, we look at the top 10 highest scoring African footballers in the UEFA Champions League goals from Africa in the competition’s history.
Top 10 African players with the most Champions League goals
10. Emmanuel Adebayor – 14 goals
Games: 57, Goals: 14, Assists: 8, Clubs: 4
Emmanuel Adebayor featured for four teams playing 57 matches overall for the likes of Arsenal, Monaco, Real Madrid, and Istanbul Basaksehir FK in the tournament.
The Togolese retired professionally in 2020 but he enjoyed five goals in seven games in the UEFA Champions League in 2008/2009 which is his best season ever in the competition while he was at Arsenal.
9. George Weah – 14 goals
Games: 22, Goals: 14, Assists: 2, Clubs: 3
The Liberian trailblazer won Africa’s first and only Ballon d’Or to date, he also has three African Footballer of the year to his name. He played football in Europe at the biggest level.
He featured for Monaco, PSG as well as AC Milan but unfortunately never lifted the trophy with any of them.
8. Vincent Aboubakar – 14 goals
Games: 24, Goals: 14, Assists: 3, Clubs: 2
Vincent Aboubakar’s performance for the Cameroonian national team at the Africa Cup of Nations in January-February 2022 should not be surprising for those who have followed his game through the UEFA Champions League.
Aboubakar played for Portuguese side FC Porto and Turkish Giants Besiktas in the competition even though his last appearance in the UEFA Champions League was in the 2019 to 2020 season. In the UEFA Champions League, he has 14 goals in 24 games
7. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 15 goals
Games: 32, Goals: 15, Assists: 3
Surprisingly as potent as Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is, he has only previously played for Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League.
Since his move to Arsenal, the Gunners have never played in the Champions League even when he left the club for Barcelona he didn’t play in the competition till his recent move to Chelsea where he featured in their 1-0 loss to Dinamo Zagreb.
Nevertheless, he has played 33 games and scored 15 goals in total in the competition, seven of those goals came in 2016/2017 when he led them to the quarter-finals.
6. Riyad Mahrez – 16 goals
Games: 45, Goals: 16, Assists: 14, Clubs: 2
Riyadh Mahrez’s foray into the UEFA Champions League started when Leicester City won the unprecedented Premier League title in 2016.
The Algeria international played a huge part in that remarkable success story and expectedly featured in the 2016/2017 season as Leicester City reached the quarter-finals that season.
Since joining Manchester City in 2018 Mahrez consistently featured in the UEFA Champions League and even got to the final in 2021 when they lost to Chelsea.
He has scored 16 goals in 45 appearances in the competition as of last season.
5. Seydou Doumbia – 19 goals
Games: 35, Goals: 19, Assists: 2, Clubs: 3
Seydou Doumbia played for three clubs in the UEFA Champions League including Sporting Lisbon, Young Boys and CSKA Moscow.
It was with the Russians that he enjoyed the best run in the UEFA Champions League but in total, he had 19 goals in 35 UEFA Champions League games
4. Sadio Mane – 24 goals
Games: 62, Goals: 23, Assists: 8, Clubs: 3
Senegalese forward Sadio Mane has the highest number of goals in the UEFA Champions League knockout stages with 14 but overall he’s only scored 23 in 62 games making him the fourth-highest scoring African in Champions League history.
Money featured for Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League qualification series in the 2013 and 2014 seasons he won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2019 and is currently with Bayern Munich.
3. Samuel Eto’o – 33 goals
Games: 82, Goals: 33, Assists: 20, Clubs: 5.
The kind of teams Samuel Eto’o played for reflects his quality as a player during his playing days.
The current Cameroon football president played for Real Madrid, Mallorca, Chelsea, Inter Milan, and Barcelona in the competition.
The multiple CAF African player of the year award winner won the competition three times with two different teams and overall has 33 goals and 32 UEFA Champions League matches.
He is only bettered by Egyptian Mohammed Salah and Ivory Coast forward Didier Drogba.
2. Mohamed Salah – 40 goals
Games: 81, Goals: 40, Assists: 15, Clubs: 4
Mohamed Salah is one UEFA Champions League game behind Samuel Eto’o but he has already surpassed his goal records last season and thus becomes the second-highest African goalscorer in the Champions League.
This happened when Liverpool recorded a 5-1 win over Porto in the group stage last season. While Salah has played in the competition with FC Basel, Chelsea, AS Roma, and Liverpool albeit he has a single title with Liverpool in 2019.
1. Didier Drogba – 44 goals
Games: 94, Goals: 44, Assists: 15, Clubs: 3
Didier Drogba led Chelsea to the UEFA Champions League title in 2012 scoring the winning penalty against Bayern Munich.
He is also currently despite, being inactive, the highest goal-scoring African in the Champions League with 44 goals from 94 UEFA Champions League games.
However, this most likely will change as Egyptian forward Mohammed Salah is just behind him with four goals
The former striker played for Marseille, Galatasaray, and Chelsea in the competition.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
