The top 10 African goalscorers in European Cup history: Salah, Drogba, Eto’o…
Famous names from Barcelona, Chelsea and Liverpool feature in the top 10 African goalscorers in European Cup history.
For the sake of clarity, we are only including goals in the competition proper, so while Mohamed Salah has scored four times in the qualifying stages, they do not count toward his figure here.
As well as that, if two players are tied on the same goals, the one who did it in fewer games is higher on the list.
Other than that, it is pretty straightforward, so here are the top 10 African goalscorers in European Cup history:
10. Rabah Madjer – 12 goals
Madjer is considered one of the best players in the history of Algerian football and shot to stardom as a Porto player in the 1980s.
He scored six goals on Porto’s first winning run, including the equaliser against Bayern Munich in the final at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion.
He hung up his boots in 1992 and twice managed his home country, having played in their first ever World Cup in 1982.
9. Sebastien Haller – 12 goals
Number 9 on the list is former West Ham striker Haller.
While the Ivorian found the net just 10 times in 48 games for the Hammers, he experienced a career revival at Ajax, netting an impressive 32 times in 50 games.
He made his Champions League debut in the 2021-22 season, scoring in his first seven games in the competition, including four in his debut against Ruben Amorim’s Sporting.
Following his move to Dortmund, Haller scored just one more Champions League goal and was given just 10 minutes in the German side’s 2024 final defeat to Real Madrid.
The 30-year-old, who was born in France but declared for Ivory Coast in November 2020, is currently on loan at Utrecht.
8. Vincent Aboubakar – 14 goals
The Cameroon international Aboubakar made his Champions League debut in 2014 with Porto, scoring a goal in a 6-0 thrashing of BATE Borisov, but struggled for form after that.
He failed to score against Shakhtar before sitting on the bench for the next three group games.
He came back with a goal in the return fixture at home to Shakhtar and scored his first knockout goal against Basel but was an unused substitute in both quarter-final legs against Bayern Munich, including the 6-1 defeat that sent Porto out.
In the next two seasons, one spent at Porto and the other at Besiktas, Aboubakar netted six times but failed to get out of the group stage.
He scored his final Champions League goals in 2017 with a brace against Monaco but was injured for the last 16 tie against Liverpool, a 5-0 defeat at the Estadio do Dragao.
7. Seydou Doumbia – 15 goals
A FIFA 15 legend, Doumbia scored 15 Champions League goals in 31 games for three different clubs in his career.
He made his debut with CSKA Moscow, scoring five times in the 2011-12 season, but never hit that tally again.
He moved to Basel in 2016, scoring just once in six games before ending his European run at Sporting in the 2017-18 season.
In between his Champions League exploits, Doumbia joined Newcastle United on loan but could only manage three sub appearances.
6. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 17 goals
Just one goal in Aubameyang’s first Champions League season soon improved with three in his next and seven in the 2016-17 campaign.
He primarily scored his goals with Dortmund, he managed just two for Chelsea, but Gabon’s all-time top scorer never made it past the quarter finals having twice excited at that stage in 2014 and 2017.
Aubameyang is, however the all-time top goalscorer in Europa League history, netting 34 times in 62 games.
5. Riyad Mahrez – 20 goals
Unlike N’Golo Kante who moved in the summer after Leicester City’s fairytale title win, Mahrez stayed the following season and got his first taste of European football at the King Power.
He kicked things off with two goals in Leicester’s opening group match against Brugge before finding the net two more times ahead of the knockouts.
He played every minute of Leicester’s knockout run but could only manage a single assist in that time.
Moving to the Etihad, it took Mahrez four games to get off the Champions League mark but now under the leadership of Pep Guardiola, the Algerian spent four games on the bench as City went out in the quarters to Tottenham.
In the 2020-21 season, Mahrez was a crucial player on City’s run, scoring in the quarters before three goals against PSG in the semi-finals. However, he could not find the net as City lost 1-0 to Chelsea in the final.
By the time of the 2023 win, Mahrez had fallen down the City pecking order and stayed on the bench for the whole of the 1-0 win against Inter.
4. Sadio Mane – 27 goals
The 2019 and 2022 African Player of the Year Mane was a crucial cog in Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool rebuild.
Joining in 2016, Mane along with Salah and Roberto Firmino combined to be a lethal front three with the Senegalese player scoring 10 goals in the 17-18 season, a figure only beaten by his team-mates and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mane scored just four times the following season but played every game in Liverpool’s first Champions League win since 2005.
Moving to Bayern Munich in 2022, Mane struggled to replicate his Liverpool form but still scored three goals in the group stages before departing for Al-Nassr in 2023.
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3. Samuel Eto’o – 30 goals
Still considered by many to be the best African player of all-time, Eto’o was a deadly mix of pace and clinical finishing.
The four-time African player of the year winner, a figure only matched by Yaya Toure, scored most of his Champions League goals for Barcelona including six in their 2005-06 triumph and four in the 2008-09 win under Pep Guardiola.
Moving to Inter in 2009, Eto’o became the fourth player in history to win back-to-back Champions Leagues at different clubs and played every game in the Jose Mourinho-masterminded run.
He spent another season at Inter before bowing out of the Champions League with Chelsea in 2014.
2. Didier Drogba – 44 goals
If there was ever a footballer that fit the bill of ‘big game player’, it was Drogba.
With 10 goals in 10 finals, the Ivorian was the man for the big occasion and he made his Champions League debut with Marseille in 2003, scoring five goals in six games.
Getting his move to Chelsea the following season, Drogba hit the same number in the 2004-05 campaign but managed just one goal in seven appearances the next year.
He scored twice in the 2008 semi-final to set up a clash against rivals Manchester United but a John Terry slip in a rain-soaked Moscow denied Chelsea their first European success.
But that success would come in 2012 with Drogba playing a starring role in the final.
A late header to take the game to extra time against Bayern, Drgoba scored the decisive penalty in what many thought would be his last kick of a ball as a Chelsea player.
He did however return in 2014 having moved to Galatasaray and scored twice in his final season of European competition.
1. Mohamed Salah – 47 goals
Considering he scored just three goals in his first 15 Champions League appearances, betting on Salah to one day become the leading African goal-scorer would have seemed a waste of money back in 2016.
But the Egyptian’s career was transformed when he joined Liverpool in 2017.
Famously a second choice of Klopp – the German preferred Julian Brandt – Salah hit 10 goals in his first Champions League season at Anfield, propelling Liverpool to their first final since 2007 but an early injury caused by Sergio Ramos (who else?) forced him to the sideline as Real Madrid won 3-1 in Kyiv.
But the following season, Liverpool and Salah went one better, with the Egyptian scoring a penalty in the club’s 2-0 defeat over Tottenham in Madrid.
Since then, Salah has regularly found the net in all competitions, including eight goals in both the 2021-22 season and the 2022-23 campaign.
This season, he is on three in seven matches, relatively lacking compared to his league exploits, but with Liverpool a favourite to win the tournament, Salah should have plenty of games left to add to his tally.