Football fans globally are anxious in anticipation for the 2022 FIFA World
Cup, and African fans will be looking at the continent’s star players who have made it into the competition to see who will shine in the tournament.
With this in mind, Seatpick scraped data from the FIFA 23 Rating Hub to establish which are the best African footballers currently active in the world, according to FIFA.
Mohamed Salah is the best active African footballer in the world. The “Egyptian King” is ranked 6th worldwide by FIFA, and has helped his club Liverpool win numerous prestigious trophies, Seatpick has revealed.
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Though Egypt didn’t manage to qualify for the upcoming World Cup, football fans can still catch the winger ripping defences apart throughout other footballing competitions such as the English Premier League and European Champions League.
In second place is Salah’s former Liverpool teammate Sadio Mané, ranked
13th worldwide by FIFA. Mané was a crucial force in defeating Salah’s
Egypt at the final of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, bringing glory to his nation of Senegal. Now a key component in a dominant Bayern Munich squad, he is a player which many are excited to see in the upcoming World Cup.
Mane is followed by two other Senegalese players in the rankings, both
of whom play for English Premier League side Chelsea: defender Kalidou
Koulibaly, ranked 37th worldwide, and goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, ranked
47th.
Whilst Koulibaly is a more recent addition to the West London squad, Mendy has been ensuring Chelsea’s protection in goal for a couple of seasons now, helping them win the UEFA Champions League in 2021. Both players, along with Mané, illustrate the strength of this Senegalese
national side going into the World Cup.
A number of other English Premier League stars appear throughout the top
10: Manchester City’s Algerian winger Riyad Mahrez in fifth, Chelsea’s
Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in sixth, Arsenal’s Ghanaian
midfielder Thomas Partey in ninth, and Liverpool’s Cameroonian defender
Joel Matip in tenth. Paris Saint-Germain’s Moroccan defender Achraf Hakimi (seventh) and Barcelona’s Ivorian midfielder Franck Yannick
Kessié (eighth) complete the table.
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OTHER NOTABLE FINDINGS:
Aubameyang is the oldest
Of the top 10 best African players in the world, the oldest is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The Gabon international made headlines this past year by moving first from Arsenal to Barcelona, and then back to England to play for Chelsea. He is 33 years old. In contrast, the
youngest player in the top 10 is Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, who has been a constant part of an impressive Paris Saint-Germain side. He is 24 years
old.
72 From Africa
Of the top 1,000 highest-ranked players in the world according to
FIFA, 72 are from Africa. Of the 54 African nations, 21 have at least
one player in the top 1,000.
Ivory Coast boast more players
The African nation with the highest number of players in the top
1,000 FIFA rankings is Ivory Coast, with 10. In second place is a
three-way tie between Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal, with 9. They are
followed by Algeria, with 8.
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COMMENTS
That is shame, some of these African countries are about the size of some states in Nigeria yet they boast of better ranked players than us because we have refused to develop our football at the grassroot level and until we do that Nigerian players will continue to be at the bottom of the ladder. Come to think of it, when last did any player from Nigeria win the African footballer of the year in the male category? We used to win it back to back
@ Frank Smith, it will be better to ask how many of the above countries rank above Nigeria in yahoo yahoo. When the wrong interest has taken over the Nigerian kid, what else do we expect? Yes the criminals managing the Nigerian sports are completely failing in their responsibility but so also are the kids, who are now after immediate so called riches hence refusing to grind out their skills in football like we used to do back in the days. Shocked I could hardly see street football in Benin city or Warri anymore. In my days, children were playing an average of 2 street matches daily after school. The developed societies have got finance to build academies but we have got street wide enough to grind out skills.
Nigerians are brilliant people in all aspects of life in general but the problem is you guys don’t take yourselves seriously and usually talk too much. Your leaders lack creativity and pragmatism. If it was not your population size which contributes to your high GDP, nobody would’ve heard of you. You guys need to do more work, be more rigorous and less talking and stop bumping your chest. That you will earn more respect and consideration from others. Some of your folks I’ve come across are fantastic people though!
I’m optimistic Nigerian players will be better African in the World than other African players, why? now in big football leauges in the World in Europe Nigerian players do better than other African one, see four excellent strikers as Pual Onuachu of Genk has 12 goals as Belgium Jupiler leauge, Terem Moffi has 9 goals as third ligue one scorer, Victor Osimhen sensational striker of Napoli has 8 goals in top Serie A scorers, Ademola Lookman of Atalanta scorer has 5 goals as a third Serie A scorer; in midfield Alex Iwobi is the second playmaker after De Bruyne at premiere leauge, Wilfred Ndidi is eleven defensive midfielder in the World; so I think in coming year or years Nigerian player will be calassified as World quality player, you will see this speculation will meterailize at coming time.