There have been 16 African players that have won the Premier League to this point, with Sadio Mane and Naby Keita likely to be added to the list over the next couple of weeks. African players have had a huge impact on the Premier League since it was introduced.
Tony Yeboah was among the first to make his mark, but that continues today with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane all dominating the top-flight in England. But, which stars have impressed the most for Premier League winning sides?
Didier Drogba
There aren’t many strikers that have left a mark the way that Didier Drogba has. The Ivorian signed for Chelsea in 2004 and went on to play for the Blues for nine years across two stays. He also went on to win the African Player of the Year award on two occasions while with the Blues. In his first stay with the Blues, he scored 100 goals in 226 Premier League appearances.
His presence in the forward line helped Chelsea win three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and the Champions League. He returned to the Blues in 2014 for a final season at Stamford Bridge, where he scored four goals in 28 appearances. He won his final Premier League title with the Blues in that same season before moving onto the MLS to play for the Montreal Impact.
Yaya Toure
Manchester City knew precisely the player they were getting when they brought Yaya Toure to the club. He was a renowned winner for his time at Barcelona, where he won six trophies in one calendar year.
Toure was one of the biggest signings during the early years of the Sheikh Mansour takeover at Manchester City, and he played an integral role in all the success that was achieved on the field over his eight-year stay. He played a total of 316 times for City and scored 79 goals, which includes the winners that he scored in the semi-final and final of the FA Cup in 2011.
During his stay with City, he won almost everything that there was to win. Toure won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and two League Cups. Toure had the stamina of a Kentucky Derby winning horse, besides an amazing body strength and shooting power.
All three of his Premier League wins came under different managers, with his final success coming under Pep Guardiola. Toure left City in 2018, but he continues to play football for Qingdao Huanghai.
Quinton Fortune
Quinton Fortune may go down as one of the unluckiest players to have played in the Premier League. He moved to Manchester United in the summer of 1999 and played for the club throughout their dominant period in the 2000s.
However, Fortune only played the necessary games to pick up one Premier League winners medal despite the club winning the title on three occasions during that period. He got a winners medal following the club’s success in the 2002-03 season by special dispensation after he had played nine times for the club in that season. Fortune also won the Community Shield and the Intercontinental Cup with the club before leaving Old Trafford in 2006.
Riyad Mahrez
The most recent African player to win the Premier League title is Riyad Mahrez. The Algerian has achieved huge success since being brought to the Premier League in the summer of 2014. Mahrez made an immediate impact at Leicester City by helping the Foxes reach the Premier League. In the 2015-16 season, he was part of the famous Leicester side that won the Premier League title, with his personal performances being rewarded with the PFA Players’ Player of the Year. That success saw him become the first African to win the award. In 2018 he became the most expensive African player when he signed for Manchester City for a reported fee of £60 million. Since signing for City, he has won the Premier League, FA Cup and the League Cup on two occasions.
