Is Mo Salah the best African player of all time? Get an answer in your head, hold on
to it- comment the answer below and by the end of this video, I will explain whether
you were right or wrong.
Mo Salah has been in phenomenal scoring form this season and with games yet to play there’s
a chance he can continue breaking all kinds of records. So, the question becomes is or
can Salah be the best African player of all time?
Well, to achieve this Salah needs to beat the achievements of the likes of Drogba, Toure,
Weah and Eto to name but a few. But some of you might have forgotten just how good these
other African players were, So I will run down the contenders for the best African players
of all time!
But first, We have to look at Mo Salah’s achievements before comparing him to anyone
else. He will most likely break Drogba’s 2010 premier league scoring record of 29 goals;
he is the Quickest Liverpool player in Premier League history to reach 20 goals; fastest
Liverpool player to reach 25 goals in 102 years and
he has the most goals scored with a left foot in a single Premier League season. In the
terms of trophies Salah has won African footballer of the year once, he won Premiership and League
cup with Chelsea- but that was part of a Chelsea team that ended up selling him; so we can’t
claim he was an impactful member of that Chelsea team.
Yet, for all Salah’s brilliance this season, he has remained humble and said his goal is
to be the greatest Egyptian player. Yes, that means Salah thinks there has been an Egyptian
player better than him. Is he talking arsenal’s Elneny?
Quick answer, no! Salah is talking about Egyptian legend and Former midfielder Mohamed Aboutrika,
who was voted the greatest player in Egyptian history with 56% in a FIFA poll, overcoming
the Mohamed Salah who had 36%. The question is who thinks Salah is the best African player,
even though Salah doesn’t even think so himself?
Well, Steven Gerrard said Salah is probably the best African player to play in the premiership.
But many people on Twitter had to remind Stevie G that there have been some pretty decent
African players in the prem throughout the years. From Jay Jay Ochocha, Kanu, Michael
Essien, Lauren, Kolo Toure and even for a while Adebayor showed a season full of goals and brilliance.
But we will focus on Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure, Samuel Eto'o and George Weah to see if Gerrard
was right or wrong. Then expand the discussion to include the great African player that never made it
to the premiership; but was still pretty decent.
First up, Yaya Toure
Mo salah’s exploits as a winger have been praised highly. But Yaya Toure’s utter control
of games as a midfielder was equally impressive. Yaya isn’t anywhere near as prolific a goalscorer
as Salah but he still had a massive impact on his team when he was in his prime.
In his career, Toure won La Liga titles, the champions league with Barcelona and 2 premiership
titles and 1 FA cup title with Manchester City. He was also voted African player of
the year a record 4 times in a row. Salah and Toure are different types of players,
so it is hard to compare their impact- but Achievement wise Salah has a lot more to do
to catch Yaya. Yaya definitely wasn’t a bit part player in any of his previous premier
league wins- but that statement will probably change at the end of this season.
Next up Didier Drogba Drogba was one of the most prolific and unstoppable
strikers that the premiership has ever seen. However, right now, Mo Salah is only one goal
behind Drogba’s highest goal tally of 29 goals in a season. This is pretty remarkable
seeing as Salah is playing as a winger/wing forward. However, Drogba also shared the field
with Frank Lampard who scored 22 goals, plus Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda who had
23 goals between them that season. Like Salah pogba didn’t just score tap-ins.
But Drogba led Chelsea to many titles; whereas Liverpool won't win the title this season
and maybe not next season either. Drogba actually has 4 Premiership titles, 4 FA cups, 3 League cups and a Champions
League title. 90% of the time Drogba was the difference maker between winning and losing
when it came to Chelsea. Especially during their Champions League win. So for Salah to
be called the best African player ever to play in the Premiership he needs to keep scoring
goals but also win trophies as the key player in his side.
Neither of these players were in the prime when they came to the premiership, but they are still African and played prem football- so they deserve a mention!
Samuel Eto'o didn’t win the Ballon d'Or like George Weah, but in terms of trophies
he was far more successful than any other African player, Eto won the Champions League
3 times, multiple La Liga titles, a Seria title, African cup of nations twice and he
won Olympic gold with Cameron.
Plus, he has won African player of the year 4 times. Eto'o, was a lethal striker that
used his speed and accuracy in front of goals to punish teams. Unlike Salah he did play
with some true world class players- so that did help Eto gain more trophies than Salah.
However, Eto certainly wasn’t a bit part player for any of his teams. Plus his gold
medal at the Olympics was in a Cameron side who weren’t exactly Barcelona. So despite
his time in the premiership being at the tail end of his career, Eto'o is still one of the
best African players to play in the premiership.
Next, we have the only African player to win the Ballon d'Or George Weah
Recognised by International Federation of Football History and Statistics as the greatest
African player of the 20th century. To many people, George Weah was the most naturally
gifted African player and one of the best players of all time.
He won African Footballer of the Year twice and most importantly for our debate Weah is
the only African player to win the Ballon d’Or—receiving the award in 1995. That
year he was also named European Footballer of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year.
He won the French title with PSG and was top scorer in the champions league that year.
However, it was at AC Milan, in the Italian Serie A, that he really shone. In Italy, Weah
won two Serie A titles. Although Weah only played 2 seasons in the premiership, he won
the FA Cup with Chelsea; even though he had passed his prime.
If Salah is to be considered better than Weah he needs to win the Ballon Dór and become
the second African player to do so.
There have been great African players that haven’t played in the premiership as well-
such as Abdi Pele Dubbed the African Pele Abdi never played in the premiership but his
CV is still more impressive than Mo Salah’s. Abdi won the champions league and league title
with Marseille- this was their first win in their history. As an attacking midfielder,
Abdi Pele played a key role in those wins.
So what’s the answer to the question? Well if you only started watching football this
season then maybe you would have a different answer to someone who has been watching football
for the last 30 years!
For instance, if we were to crown salah off one season, then Jamie Vardy could be considered
the best English striker ever, simply based on one prolific season. With that said, there
actually has been some pretty great players from Africa. Obviously, no world cup winners,
but certainly many domestic title trophy and awards winners. For Mo Salah to be considered
the best African footballer of all time, he needs to either lift Liverpool to title-winning
levels or pack his bags and move to a club which has a team that can challenge for the
title. But even simply as an individual player, he needs to reach the levels of Messi, Ronaldo
and Neymar so that he can add a ballon dór win to his growing list of achievements. With
that said, Salah’s future is very bright it all comes down to how long and which team
he wants to shine for! In short, the only people who think Salah
is the best African player ever are either Liverpool fans, Egyptian or don’t have a
good knowledge of football history. So no, Salah is not the best African player ever.
But the real question is who is the best African player of all time? Comment your answers!
With that said, I’ve been Antoine Allen, please hit that like button and download the
Onefootball app.