FAB Sports:Africa’s finest strikers of all-time in AFCON history

The ongoing AFCON 2013 will probably go down in the annals of the competition as the worst in terms of goals scored, unless participating teams shore up their goal scoring skills.

At the last count, all teams combined have only managed to score a miserly 29 goals, with most games ending in either a goalless draw or 1-1 score draw, the highest number of goals in a single match, 4-0 was recorded in the Ethiopia vs Burkina Faso match.

These raises salient questions, what do football fans come to watch at the stadium?, What remains the talking point after the game? It is not just the mesmerizing display and the saves made by the keeper, but the goals scored, who scored it? who won the match? That’s what fans slave to see and what matters most to them.

While it might be too early to judge,  the seemingly flat footed strikers at this tournament are evoking nostalgia and making a lot of people wonder, is the dearth of natural strikers hitting Africa?

Let’s go down memory lane and remember some of Africa’s finest strikers, who we all miss their goal scoring instincts and killer finishing moves.

Laurent Pokou

Pokou was twice the highest goalscorer of the Africa Cup of Nations, scoring six goals in the 1968 tournament in Ethiopia and eight in the 1970 edition in Sudan, including 5 in one match against Ethiopia, which Ivory Coast won 6-1, this feat earned him the nickname L’homme d’Asmara (the man of Asmara).  He was also the tournament’s highest overall goalscorer,  until Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, dwarfed his record at the 2008 ACN tournament. The Ivorien who was born on October 8, 1947 played for such clubs as ASEC Abidjan, Stade Rennais and AS Nancy in France

Segun Odegbami

Nicknamed mathematical Segun Odegbami for his classic cross and clinical finish, he is arguably one of Africa’s finest strikers ever not to have played in the World Cup, he was an active part of the Nigerian national team. He was top scorer at 2 nation cups, 1978, and 1980, the year he helped Nigeria win Africa’s biggest football prize for the very first time and on home soil. This striker par excellence who spent his entire football career with IICC ,Ibadan, is also a trained engineer.

Roger Milla

The oldest player to have ever played in a World Cup final, inspired Cameroon’s 1984 and 1988 Africa Cup of Nations wins, African Football Player of the year in 1977, he is well remembered for his smile, dance and goals. Born 20 May 1952, he made his first apperance for Cameroon’s national team in 1978, he also played for 14 clubs, most of them outside his native country. This truly great African is regarded as Africa’s greatest football player.

Rashidi Yekini

Gangling Rashid Yekini,the  lethal striker is Nigeria’s most revered striker of all-time, he started his international career with the Nigeria national team in the year 1984, spotted the green jersey of the Eagles at 6 different editions of the nations cup. Highest goal scorer at the 1992 and 1994 edition, he was also named Africa Footballer of the year in 1993, won the Nation’s Cup with the Eagles in 1994. Rashidi had a memorable stint with local Nigeria clubs and foreign clubs in Spain, Portugal, Greece among many other countries. He also scored Nigeria’s first ever goal at the World Cup. The late goal king who died on 4 May 2012 was born on 23 October 1963.

Samuel Eto’O Fils

All-time leading scorer in the history of the African Nations Cup, with 18 goals, Samuel Eto is a goal merchant, deft on the ball and a defender’s nightmare. He earned his first cap for Cameroon a  day before his 16th birthday on 9 March 1997,  a year later  he was the youngest participant in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Eto’o was  part of Cameroon’s squads that won the 2000 and 2002 Africa Cup of Nations. His professional career has seen him play for clubs great club like Real Madrid and Barcelona. Also, he was a winner of the African Footballer of the year award.

Listed below are Africa’s highest goal scorers of all-time