Goal.com recount Africa’s greatest Golden Boot winners

Who have been Africa’s greatest goal-getters in Europe’s major domestic leagues?

Mohamed Salah

Salah has won the Golden Boot in his last two seasons in the English game, winning the award in his first—record-breaking—year at Liverpool, and then retaining it last season, albeit tied with two other African All-Stars.
At the time of the Premier League’s postponement due to coronavirus, he was three goals off the pace in the scoring charts, and firmly in the running to win the gong again. For context, only three other players have won the top scorers award in three consecutive top flight seasons in English football history.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

The only African player to win a Golden Boot in two different major European Leagues, Auba will be remembered as a sublime goal-getter, even if he’s won few club honours to match his individual quality.
In 2017 he eclipsed four-time Golden Boot winner Robert Lewandowski to clinch the Bundesliga award, and after transferring that form to the Premier League he stands alongside the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Ruud van Nistelrooy as players who have done it in two different major leagues.
Perhaps Aubameyang’s most impressive achievement, however, is not just winning the Golden Boot, but the fact that he did it at a muddled Arsenal team, under the confused reign of Unai Emery.
Didier Drogba

Some may argue that Drogba blew too hot and cold at times in the Premier League, and there may be some truth to that.
During his nine seasons at Chelsea, he only hit double figures on five occasions, and only twice breached the 20-goal mark…for context, that’s only twice as often as Yaya Toure, playing in a deeper role for Manchester City.
However, during the years when he was on top form, there were few better, and Drogba clinched the Golden Boot in both 2007 and 2009.
He’s one of only two non-European players—along with Salah—to win the Golden Boot twice in the history of English football, and his haul in the 06-07 season made him the first African
player to clinch the prize.
Samuel Eto’o

One of the greatest African goalscorers of all-time, Eto’o was already Real Mallorca’s top goalscorer ever by the time he moved to Barcelona in 2004, while still in his early 20s.
He’s proved himself to be a big-game player—one of only two to score in two different Champions League finals—and also enjoyed great domestic goalscoring success.
He was La Liga’s top scorer in the 2005-06 season, a year in which he won La Liga, the Champions League and the Spanish Super Cup, and ended his time at Barca with a whopping 108 league goals in 144 matches.
Despite being played in wide areas on occasion, he translated his goalscoring form to Italy with Internazionale, scoring 33 in 67 Serie A matches before leaving the San Siro.
Tony Yeboah

Both a scorer of great goals and a great scorer of goals, Yeboah holds the distinction of being the first player—and the only until Gareth Bale—to win back-to-back Goal of the Month competitions in the Premier League, and he also won the Goal of the Season award for his thunderous effort against Liverpool in 1995-96.
Before moving to Leeds United, he’d already won four Golden Boots; two in the Ghana Premier League in the late 80s, and then two in the Bundesliga in the early 90s, as part of an excellent Eintracht Frankfurt team.
In ’94, Yeboah became the first non-European player (and only the second non-German player) to win the Golden Boot in the German top flight, and he’s one of only two foreigners—the other being Lewandowski—to win the award twice.
Sadio Mane

Mane’s goalscoring record throughout his career has been respectable and consistent, without truly being breathtaking, although it’s worth noting that he’s struck double figures every season since his debut campaign with Metz in 2011-12.
At Liverpool, he’s perhaps been celebrated more for his work in Liverpool’s build-up play than as a finisher, but he nonetheless became a Golden Boot winner last season when he shared the award with Salah and Aubameyang.
Mane’s return of 14 goals this term leaves him five behind Jamie Vardy, and while that’s some gulf, the 28-year-old may yet have the chance to get his hands on the award for a second consecutive season.