Top African goalscorers in Premier League history: Liverpool star Mohamed Salah leads the way ahead of treble winner and Chelsea legend
Yesterday at 04:56 AM
The Premier League has been treated to the talents of some of the best African footballers of all time over the years.
And there have been countless goals scored in the English top-flight by Africa’s biggest superstars.
From Mohamed Salah to Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure, talkSPORT.com has taken a look at the top 10 highest-scoring players in Premier League history…
10. Nwankwo Kanu (54 goals, 273 matches)
The majority of the other players on this list made their names in the top-flight within the last 15 years, but Kanu’s peak was before then.
Arsenal signed the forward in 1999 from Inter Milan for just over £6million, and he was a big hit.
He made over 100 top-flight appearances for the Gunners and scored 30 goals, helping the club win the Premier League twice.
He left in 2004 but remained in England, joining West Brom and then Portsmouth, but he only scored 24 more goals across six seasons before Pompey were relegated in 2010, and he retired in 2012.
9. Yaya Toure (62 goals, 230 matches)
Given Toure was a central midfielder, his numbers in the Premier League are even more impressive.
The Ivorian arrived from Barcelona in 2010 for around £25m, but many people felt City had overpaid, and they couldn’t have been more wrong.
Over the next eight years, Toure became the ideal box-to-box midfielder, possessing sublime technique and an incredible engine.
He played his part in some brilliant sides, but no one will ever forget his 2013/14 campaign, as he scored a staggering 20 top-flight goals to help win City the Premier League trophy.
8. Wilfried Zaha (68 goals, 305 matches)
Zaha could go down as one of the Premier League’s most underrated wingers of modern times.
There were times when it seemed he was keeping Crystal Palace in the league on his own, and he was often the club’s top goalscorer.
Across his last five years in England, the Ivorian registered double figures for goals three times.
Unfortunately, a move to a big English club never materialised after his initial transfer to Manchester United failed before returning to Palace.
But in 2023, he decided it was time for something new and joined Galatasaray, where he scored in the Champions League at Old Trafford to silence his former club.
7. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (69 goals, 143 matches)
When we think of Aubameyang, we probably remember Mikel Arteta throwing him out of Arsenal and his Chelsea struggles, but before all that, he was a top striker.
His goals-to-games ratio is incredible, and under Arsene Wenger, Unai Emery and Arteta, the Gabonese international scored plenty.
Aubameyang joined the Gunners from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018, and he scored ten times in his first 13 league games.
He followed that up with two years of 20+ before his numbers dropped and problems started to crop up.
In the end, Arteta decided to put the team first, and Aubameyang was shipped out, but we shouldn’t forget how good he was for two-and-a-half years.
6. Riyad Mahrez (82 goals, 284 matches)
Treble-winner Mahrez is also among the top African scorers after an incredible career, scoring a total of 82 goals for Leicester and Man City.
Signed for just over £400,000 by Leicester in 2014 from Le Harve, the Algerian international played a huge role in the Foxes’ shock title win during the 2015/16 season.
He scored an incredible 17 times as Leicester stunned everyone to become champions of England.
Mahrez joined Man City in the summer of 2018 and became a key player for Pep Guardiola out on the right.
The winger proved to be a lethal finisher and scored all types of goals as he added more and more trophies to his personal haul before departing for Saudi Arabia in 2023.
5. Yakubu Aiyegbeni (95 goals, 252 matches)
‘Feed the Yak, and he will score’ became a very popular chant at Everton while Yakubu played for the Toffees.
The Nigerian forward spent nine years in the Premier League and played for Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Everton and Blackburn Rovers.
At his peak, he was a top striker who scored over double figures in six top-flight seasons.
Yakubu is perhaps one of the least fashionable names on this list, but he was a born goalscorer and is a cult hero at all of his previous Premier League sides.
4. Emmanuel Adebayor (97 goals, 241 matches)
Adebayor is fourth after spells at Man City and north London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham.
The Togolese international initially joined the Gunners in 2006 from Monaco and struggled to make it into the team.
But his breakthrough year proved to be the 2007/08 season when he scored a staggering 24 goals before joining City in 2009.
His most infamous moment came while at City when he scored against Arsenal and charged to the other end of the pitch to celebrate in front of the travelling Gunners fans, sparking angry scenes in the away end.
Adebayor then left for a brief spell with Real Madrid before returning to play for Spurs, meaning many Arsenal fans aren’t big fans of their former striker.
3. Didier Drogba (104 goals, 254 matches)
When it was Drogba’s day, there was little any Premier League defender could do about it.
The Ivorian was an elite striker, and after joining Chelsea from Marseille in 2004, he helped the Blues win three Premier League titles during his first spell with the club.
Drogba also played a huge role in Chelsea’s first Champions League triumph, scoring a late equaliser against Bayern Munich and then slotting home the winning penalty in the shootout.
The forward then departed for a spell at Galatasaray before Jose Mourinho brought him back, and he played one more season for the Blues, winning a fourth league title.
2. Sadio Mane (111 goals, 263 matches)
Salah’s former Liverpool teammate, Mane, also makes the list after years of tormenting defences under Jurgen Klopp.
The now Al-Nassr forward sits in second place in the all-time goalscorer rankings for African players in the Premier League.
Mane initially joined Southampton in 2014 from RB Salzburg and scored the quickest hat-trick in history against Aston Villa (2 minutes and 56 seconds).
Liverpool signed him in 2016, and Mane became a key part of the Premier League’s best attacking trio, with Salah and Roberto Firmino.
As a unit, they scored 338 goals and provided 139 assists as Liverpool won the Premier League and became European champions.
1. Mohamed Salah (165 goals, 274 matches)
Liverpool superstar Salah is the highest-scoring African player in Premier League history.
The Egyptian has dominated the top-flight ever since signing for the Reds in 2017 following a brief stint with Chelsea.
Salah became the first-ever player to score 32 goals in one season in his first year at Anfield, and he has netted at least 18 goals every campaign since.
Only two of his league strikes came for Chelsea, while the rest have been scored for Liverpool.
He is the club’s all-time top goalscorer in the Premier League, sitting above Robbie Fowler and Steven Gerrard in the rankings.
There is definitely an argument to say Salah is one of the league’s greatest-ever players.
