Skip to main content

My Top 15 African footballers.

As AFCON is happening, I thought I should do a list of my Top 15 best footballers in African football history. Based on performance & accolades: 

1) Samuel Eto'o 🇨🇲
2) Roger Milla 🇨🇲
3) Eusébio 🇲🇿
4) Essam El-Hadry 🇪🇬
5) Mohammed Salah 🇪🇬
6) Sadio Mané 🇸🇳
7) Abednigo Ngcobo 🇸🇿
8) Michael Essien 🇬🇭
9) Didier Drogba 🇨🇮
10) Rigobert Song 🇨🇲
11) Emmanuel Adebayor 🇹🇬
12) Jay-Jay Okocha 🇳🇬
13) Vincent Enyeama 🇳🇬
14) Laurent Pokou 🇨🇮
15) Kalusha Bwalya 🇿🇲

The names on this list are probably expected but some odd choices explained; 
• Essam El-Hadry is an AFCON legend & applied his trade in diverse lands, he has the second most appearances for the Egyptian national team. 
• Abednigo Ngcobo played during a time when black players in South Africa couldn't represent South Africa so a Black XI was chosen once for a one off occasion where they beat Argentina. He's probably the best footballer to come out of South Africa. 
• Drogba at number 9: Drogba was good but I think he wasn't as good as he was hyped up to be. I feel everything was aligned for him to be as good as he was. He was good but not as good as many people make him out to be.
• Vincent Enyeama is on this list because I feel he's been one of the best African goalkeepers in recent history & remember him as the goalkeeper who stopped Lionel Messi during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 

The rest of the list is pretty self-explanatory for most African football fans.

Labels

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The modern Zulu language.

I always wondered which of the many Zulu dialects modern Zulu is & always thought it was Hlubi (isiMbo) & according to this thesis by a Mr. Isaac Sibusiso Kubeka written in what was apparently 1979, we see modern Zulu is more the original Ntungwa dialect. The Mthethwa dialect (isiLala) that was likely spoken by King Shaka looks more a Tsonga dialect from a Zulu-speaker's perspective. Despite the "Zulu area" speaking many dialects, I'm of the belief that these dialects were mutually intelligible & similar for the most part. This is the only way these Nguni tribes from southern Mozambique up to Umzimvubu River & inland into the Drakensberg Mountains up to Gauteng could understand each other because I, genuinely, think that it was seldom that an African travelled to a land where he couldn't speak the local language in precolonial times.  Mild differences between Zulu dialects. Writing Zulu   I remember reading a book written in 1930 by ...
Read more

History of the Mpofana by Mthoko M. Mpofana

I'm not very traditional, I'm more straightforward & basic & often disregard cultural nuances so this history of the Mpofana tribe is going to be as direct & concise as possible.  Growing up, I grew up knowing that the clan praises or izithakazelo of the Mpofana are "Zulu" & "Ntombela", I never questioned that.  What I know now for sure is that there's a lot more that's hidden in history. What I keep seeing being repeated from various sources is that the Mpofana were part of the Amazizi (or AmaTiti) tribe. I now know that in the midlands & perhaps further north, up to the northwestern parts of KZN, they use the greeting "MaZizi okuhlala", perhaps alluding to the fact that the Mpofana as well as other Amazizi tribes were among the original tribes to settle in present-day KZN from 200 AD onwards & the "Dlamini" praise or greeting was used among all Dlamini tribes i. e. the Amahlubi, Amazizi (Mtiti), Hlangwini...
Read more

KZN's first minted, mainstream currency.

If you read some of my blogs, you'll notice that I study history a lot. I was searching for old currencies used in South Africa one day a few years back & discovered something which was called by indigenous people of KZN as "ukhence" or "inkence" . To this day, a colloquial word for money by indigenous people is "inkence". This currency was said to be so popular among indigenous people that it infiltrated popular culture of the time viz. "Wangishaya ngokhence."  Officially called Stratchan & co. token coins , it was likely the first mainstream currency used by indigenous people other than cattle, tools, weapons & crops even though it was said to be minted in England.  Examples of Strachan & co. token coins & coin denominations. They claim the hole was so indigenous people could wear it with beads but maybe it was also for the practical purpose of saving metal to make the coins.  The Str...
Read more