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 ๐จ๐ฒ
2) Roger Milla ๐จ๐ฒ
3) Eusรฉbio ๐ฒ๐ฟ
4) Essam El-Hadry ๐ช๐ฌ
5) Mohammed Salah ๐ช๐ฌ
6) Sadio Manรฉ ๐ธ๐ณ
7) Abednigo Ngcobo ๐ธ๐ฟ
8) Michael Essien ๐ฌ๐ญ
9) Didier Drogba ๐จ๐ฎ
10) Rigobert Song ๐จ๐ฒ
11) Emmanuel Adebayor ๐น๐ฌ
12) Jay-Jay Okocha ๐ณ๐ฌ
13) Vincent Enyeama ๐ณ๐ฌ
14) Laurent Pokou ๐จ๐ฎ
15) Kalusha Bwalya ๐ฟ๐ฒ
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.