Samuel Eto’o, Mohamed Salah and the 25 best African players of the 21st century so far – ranked

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.