Top African goalscorers in Premier League history revealed – who really leads the list

Man, that Premier League goalscorer question had me scratching my head for days. You know how it starts – just chatting football with mates down the pub, arguing about who Africa’s top scorer really is. Everyone’s shouting “Salah!” or “Drogba!” but nobody had cold hard facts. So I grabbed my laptop thinking this’ll be quick.

The Initial Search Mess

Tapped into my usual go-to sites first. Checked the Premier League official stats page – decent but splits players by nationality, not continent. Big oversight there. Scrolled through Wikipedia tables next, but the numbers didn’t match up across different player pages. StatsBomb’s database? Too technical, needed simple totals.

• * – Filtered by nationality not continent
• Wikipedia – Inconsistent across pages, zero citations
• Football reference sites – Mostly paywalled or outdated

Got mad frustrated. Salah’s numbers showed 140 on one page, 129 on another. Was ready to chuck my mouse through the screen.

Building My Own Damn List

Pulled out a notebook – old school style. Wrote down every African player I remembered from Prem history. Started cross-referencing club by club. Manchester United pages for Eric Djemba-Djemba (sorry mate, 0 goals). Arsenal for Kanu, Chelsea for Drogba. Tracked every single goal on paper:

• Counted only official Premier League goals – no FA Cup or League Cup
• Triple-checked disputed goals (that Adebayor backheel vs Villa?)
• Ignored penalty assists + own goals – pure striker tally

The Final Tally Shocker

After 3 nights of coffee stains and scribbled-out numbers? Blew my mind. Salah’s clear at 147 and climbing. But second place? Everyone thinks it’s Drogba at 104. Nope. Yakubu Aiyegbeni – 95 goals across 4 clubs. Quietly banged ‘em in for Portsmouth, Everton, Blackburn. Even got past legends like Benni McCarthy.

Mahmoud Hassan (“Trezeguet”) barely cracked top 15 despite all the hype. Still typing this with ink smudges on my fingers – sometimes you gotta ditch the screens and wrestle raw data yourself. Pub arguments just got settled forever.