As we are all excited and anxious in anticipation of the 2022 Fifa World Cup, around Africa, football fans will be looking at the continent’s star players who have made it into the competition to see who will shine bright.
With this in mind, Seatpick scraped data from the Fifa 23 Ratings Hub to establish who are the best African footballers currently active in the world, according to Fifa.
Seatpick reveals that Mohamed Salah is the best active African footballer in the world. The “Egyptian King” is ranked 6th worldwide by Fifa and has helped his club, Liverpool, win numerous prestigious trophies.
Though Egypt did not qualify for the upcoming World Cup, football fans can still catch the winger ripping defences apart throughout other footballing competitions such as the English Premier League and European Champions League.
In second place is Salah’s former Liverpool teammate Sadio Mané, ranked 13th worldwide by Fifa. Mané was a crucial force in defeating Salah’s Egypt at the final of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, bringing glory to his nation of Senegal.
Now a key component in a dominant Bayern Munich squad, he is a player who many will be watching in the upcoming World Cup.
Mané is followed by two other Senegalese players in the rankings, both of whom play for English Premier League side Chelsea – defender Kalidou Koulibaly, ranked 37th worldwide, and goalkeeper Édouard Mendy, ranked 47th.
While Koulibaly is a more recent addition to the west London squad, Mendy has been ensuring Chelsea’s protection in goal for a couple of seasons now, helping them win the UEFA Champions League in 2021. Both players, along with Mané, illustrate the strength of this Senegalese national side going into the World Cup.
A number of other English Premier League stars appear throughout the top 10: Manchester City’s Algerian winger Riyad Mahrez in fifth, Chelsea’s Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in sixth, Arsenal’s Ghanaian midfielder Thomas Partey in ninth, and Liverpool’s Cameroonian defender Joël Matip in 10th place.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Moroccan defender Achraf Hakimi (seventh) and Barcelona’s Ivorian midfielder Franck Yannick Kessié (eighth) complete the table.
Other notable findings:
Of the top 10 best African players in the world, the oldest is Aubameyang. The Gabon international made headlines this past year by moving first from Arsenal to Barcelona, and then back to England to play for Chelsea. He is 33 years old.
In contrast, the youngest player in the top 10 is Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, who has been a constant part of an impressive Paris Saint-Germain side. He is 24 years old.
Of the top 1 000 highest-ranked players in the world according to Fifa, 72 are from Africa. Of the 54 African nations, 21 have at least one player in the top 1 000.
The African nation with the highest number of players in the top 1 000 Fifa rankings is Ivory Coast, with 10. In second place are Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal with nine players, followed by Algeria with eight players. – Research by https://seatpick.com/
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