The 2022 Fifa World Cup is around the corner. Around Africa, football fans are excited and looking out at how our continent’s star players are going to perform in the tournament.
Below is a table ranking of the best African footballers who are active in the world with the data from the FIFA 23 Rating Hub.
Rank |
Player |
National team |
Age |
Club |
FIFA ranking |
1 |
Mohamed Salah |
Egypt |
30 |
Liverpool |
6 |
2 |
Sadio Mané |
Senegal |
30 |
Bayern Munich |
13 |
3 |
Kalidou Koulibaly |
Senegal |
31 |
Chelsea |
37 |
4 |
Édouard Mendy |
Senegal |
30 |
Chelsea |
47 |
5 |
Riyad Mahrez |
Algeria |
31 |
Manchester City |
52 |
6 |
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang |
Gabon |
33 |
Chelsea |
89 |
7 |
Achraf Hakimi |
Morocco |
24 |
Paris Saint-Germain |
98 |
8 |
Franck Yannick Kessié |
Ivory Coast |
25 |
Barcelona |
105 |
9 |
Thomas Partey |
Ghana |
29 |
Arsenal |
114 |
10 |
Joël Matip |
Cameroon |
31 |
Liverpool |
136 |
The first one on the list is Mohamed Salah, an Egyptian, who is 30 years of age and is currently playing for Liverpool football club. He is ranked number six worldwide. He is famously known as the Egyptian king, who has helped his football club win a number of trophies. You can watch him in action through other football competitions since sadly, Egypt did not qualify for their upcoming World Cup.
Second in place is Sadio Mané, a former teammate of Salah, currently ranked number 13 Worldwide by FIFA. He currently plays for Bayern Munich and played a key role in defeating Egypt at the finals of the 2021 African cup of Nations bringing a win to his home country, Senegal.
Sadio is followed by Chelsea’s and Senegal’s side defender Kalidou Koulibaly, who is ranked 37 Worldwide, and Senegalese goalkeeper Édouard Mendy, who is also ranked at number 47. Mendy has ensured and safeguarded Chelsea’s goalpost for some seasons now, helping them win the UEFA champions league in 2021 while Mané recently joined the West London squad both shining This Senegalese flag high.
Other stars who made it to the top 10 include, Manchester City’s Algerian Winger Riyad Mahrez who is ranked fifth, Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who is ranked sixth and also plays for Chelsea football club, Arsenal’s Ghanaian midfielder Thomas Partey in ninth, and Liverpool’s Cameroonian defender Joël Matip in tenth. Paris Saint-Germain’s Moroccan defender Achraf Hakimi (seventh) and Barcelona’s Ivorian midfielder Franck Yannick Kessié (eighth) complete the table.
It is worth noting that, of the top 10 African best players, the oldest is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who currently plays for Chelsea football club and is 33 years old while the youngest is Morocco’s Achraf Hakim who is 24 years old.
Also in the FIFA top 1,000 rankings, 72 players are from Africa. Of the 54 African nations, 21 nations have at least one player in the top 1000, of which Ivory Coast has 10 players in the top 1000 while in the second place comes a tie between three nations, Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal, all with 9 players each, then followed by Algeria with 8 players.
Disclaimer
- The data used above were collected on 1 November 2022 and are accurate as of then and subject to change.
- The table in the data was used by the FIFA 23 Rating Hub for the ranking.
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