Sadio Mane has broken into the top five list of African players whom have scored up to or more than 25 goals in the UEFA Champions League.
Bayern Munich Football Club, the Bundesliga winners, thrashed Viktoria Plze 5-0 at the Allianz Arena in the Champions League.
During the game on Tuesday, Sadio Mané, Senegal international, scored and assisted. In the 21st minute of the first half, he made a great run at goal and scored, and in the second half, he provided an assist to fellow African Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.
The Senegalese player’s strike, which was also his first Champions League goal for the Bavarians, was his sixth for Bayern in all competitions after leaving Liverpool.
The Bavarians had gone a record-breaking 31 UEFA Champions League group matches without suffering a loss, and on the third occasion, they defeated Viktoria Plze in the competition with five goals.
It is really impressive that they have started their UEFA Champions League campaign in such a way for the fourth consecutive season after defeating Barcelona and Internazionale Milan in their opening matches of the league. They have now won three games in a row.
The dynamic winger’s superb performance on Tuesday night can be seen in his statistics, which include 6/7 ground duels won, 4/5 completed dribbles, 3 shots on goal, 1 tackle won, 1/1 long ball completed, and 1 goal.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022, saw him selected as the game’s Most Valuable Player after dazzling five opponents before slotting the ball for his team’s third goal.
Below are the African stars with 25 goals and more:
Senegal’s Sadio Mane (25)
After scoring in Bayern Munich’s demolition of Viktoria Plze this week, Sadio Mane became the fourth African to score 25+ Champions League goals.
In a lopsided rout of the Czech champions, the Senegal international scored his team’s third goal, continuing Bayern’s unblemished start to this season’s group stage.
After a fantastic six-season stint at Liverpool, where his prodigious goal scoring record made him a solid favorite among the finest football tippers, Mane signed for Bayern in the summer.
Samuel Eto’o – Cameroon (30)
Samuel Eto’o, one of Africa’s greatest football exporters, enjoyed a career marked by significant success in the Champions League.
The Cameroonian signed for Barcelona in 2004 after establishing himself at Mallorca and had a productive time in Catalonia. In 199 games, Eto’o scored 130 goals for Barcelona, contributing significantly to the team’s Champions League triumph.
He contributed to the victories over Manchester United (2009) and Arsenal (2006), the latter of which completed an illustrious triple for Pep Guardiola.
After Marcel Desailly, Paulo Sousa, and Gerard Piqué, he became the fourth man to win the Champions League in back-to-back seasons with different clubs.
Mohamed Salah – Egypt (38)
After netting his 38th goal in the competition during Liverpool’s 2-0 victory against Rangers this week, Mohamed Salah is now the second-highest scoring African in Champions League history.
Salah broke Steven Gerrard’s record in 2020 and has since scored 35 goals for Liverpool in the Champions League, a club record.
As for the record for the most goals scored in the Champions League for an English team, Didier Drogba and Sergio Aguero (36) are leading with Salah being a goal behind them.
The international from Egypt has been a standout for the Merseysiders in recent years, and his early penalty kick helped Liverpool defeat Tottenham in the 2019 final.
His 11 goals during the 2017–18 season, which he shares with Roberto Firmino as the top African scorer in Premier League history, set a Liverpool club record for a single European season.
Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba (44)
Didier Drogba, who played for Marseille, Chelsea, and Galatasaray, is the most productive African player in Champions League history with 44 goals.
The best seasons of Drogba’s career were spent representing Chelsea, where the Ivorian center-forward was a talismanic force during the most prosperous period in the club’s history.
For the west Londoners, Drogba scored a number of memorable goals, but his dramatic late equalizer in the 2012 Champions League final stands out above the rest.
He was so frequently the man of the moment that he scored nine goals in ten cup finals for Chelsea. His thunderous header against Bayern Munich forced extra time, and when the forward won the shootout, Chelsea became the first team to win the European championship.
He is tied for the most goals ever scored for an English team in the Champions League with 36, setting a club record for Chelsea.
