The Best African Players In Premier League History
The EPL’s Top African Players Ever
The EPL is the foremost club league in the footballing world, drawing in not only English and European talent but players from all across the globe, including Africa. Here are some of the finest players from Africa ever to play in the Premier League.
Jay-Jay Okocha
Born in 1973, Jay-Jay Okocha (Augustine Azuka Okocha to be formal) was a Nigerian footballer who made a big mark on the EPL, and European football generally. Hailing from Enugu, Jay-Jay Okocha began his footballing life by playing on the streets, and even his own nickname was a hand-me-down from his elder brother James. In 1990 he joined up with the Enugu Rangers, but his break in Europe was down to a combination of holiday luck and raw talent. Visiting West Berlin with a friend who played for Borussia Neunkirchen, Okocha asked to join in during practice and was so impressive the coach offered him a contract the next day. A couple of years later he was playing in the top flight, with Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt. After playing for major Turkish and French sides (Fenerbahçe and Paris Saint-Germain), Okocha hopped across the Channel and signed for Bolton Wanderers.
At the time Bolton Wanderers were in the EPL and Okocha joined on a free transfer. Injuries bedevilled his first season with the club, and that might have put a damper on things, but the contrary was the case and he became a fan favourite. He repaid the affection by helping stave off relegation with his scoring and became the club’s captain. Wearing the armband, Okocha took Bolton to the final of the League Cup in 2004 but was unable to secure silverware for his side.
Okocha also made numerous appearances for the Nigerian national team, scoring 14 times in 73 appearances. In 1996 he was part of the team that took gold in the Olympic Games hosted by Atlanta.
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Victor Wanyama
A great African footballer who is, at the time of writing, still active in the game is Kenya’s Victor Wanyama. Born in 1991, his career has taken him to clubs in Belgium, Scotland, England, and most recently Canada. In his youth, Wanyama was part of Allsvenskan club Helsingborg, but in 2008 he moved to Belgium to join Beerschot.
His first British team was not English, but Scottish, namely Celtic (a giant of the Scottish Premiership). Wanyama put in 61 appearances and scored 10 goals for the club, including one during a victory over Barcelona during which he became the first man from Kenya to score in the UEFA Champions League. In 2013, he moved south of the border and joined Southampton in the English Premier League. Once again, Wanyama broke new ground for a Kenyan player, becoming the first to play in the EPL. Unfortunately, injuries meant that he did not make as many appearances for Southampton as he might have in his first season but the next year (2014) he was named African Player of the Month for September.
Come 2016, Wanyama moved to Tottenham Hotspur, another EPL side, in a five-year deal that reunited him with manager Mauricio Pochettino (previously in charge of Southampton). Things started well, with a goal on his debut, and he made 69 appearances for Spurs in total (lower than it might have been due to a number of knee injuries). In 2020, he left the side for CF Montréal of the MLS, his current side.
Didier Drogba
One of the first names that spring to mind when thinking of great African players who enjoyed a fantastic streak of success in the English Premier League must be Didier Drogba. He played for Chelsea during two stints (2004-12 and 2014-15) and during that time scored more goals for the club than any other overseas player in history (putting him 4th on the list when including home-grown players).
Drogba first joined Chelsea in 2004 in a deal worth some £24m, which marked both an Ivorian and a Chelsea record at the time. It proved money well spent, with Drogba helping the club to their first domestic title in half a century, a title which was successfully defended the following season. Power and prolific scoring were the hallmarks of Drogba’s presence on the pitch and come 2012 he achieved a milestone by becoming the first player from Africa to score 100 goals in the EPL.
Internationally, Drogba captained the Ivory Coast from 2006 to 2014, scoring 65 goals in 105 appearances, and helped his team to reach their first World Cup in 2006. And, if that weren’t enough, he played a philanthropic role away from the pitch, helping to bring peace to his country.
Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah Hamed Mahrous Ghaly, known in England by the rather more concise moniker Mo Salah, is an Egyptian pro and today serve as one of the key parts of the Liverpool team (in addition to being the captain of his national side). His first senior team was Egyptian side Al Mokawloon (having graduated from the youth team), and Salah scored in almost a third of all his appearances (11 goals in 38 matches). In 2012, Salah left his home country to join Swiss side Basel for a few years, before brief stints at Chelsea (his first EPL club), then, on loan, Italian sides Fiorentina and Roma. He went on to join Roma properly, and, collectively, made 65 appearances and scored 29 goals for them. But Salah’s biggest move came in 2017 when he joined Liverpool.
Liverpool is one of the biggest sides in English football history, and while they had enjoyed some notable European success in recent memory their glory days of domestic titles seemed to belong in the past. This changed with the arrival of popular German manager Jürgen Klopp (in 2015) and one of the key signings Klopp made was Mo Salah. The Egyptian fit into the Liverpool team perfectly, and, at the time of writing, has made 162 appearances with 110 goals, an impressive strike rate, and one of the factors in Liverpool claiming the 2019-20 EPL title. That return to domestic success followed the 2018-19 Champions League title victory, Salah’s prolific goal-scoring capabilities helping Liverpool to claim some serious silverware. Indeed, his goal in the Champions League Final, within two minutes, was the second-fastest in the tournament’s history.
On the international stage, Salah captains Egypt and has scored 45 goals in his 73 appearances (to date) for his country. He was part of the side that made it to the final of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, with Egypt ending up losing out to Cameroon.
African nations have produced world-class talent in recent times, and the ferocious competition and earning potential means there are bound to be even more in the EPL before too long.
