Who is Africa’s Greatest Ever Footballer?
A few days ago I published a little post here on World Cup Blog about Abedi Pelé, where I referred to him as Africa’s greatest ever player. This stirred up quite a bit of controversy. What about Roger Milla? What about George Weah? And who am I to decide who Africa’s greatest ever player is anyway? All fair comments.
While Abedi Pelé is my personal favourite African footballer, I understand that others feel differently. I’ve also learned that when making statements like “greatest of all time,” it’s always best to use the words “arguably” or “in my opinion” at the front of that sentence.
So to redress the balance a little here’s a celebration of - arguably - the three greatest African footballers.
Liberia’s George Weah won league titles in both France and Italy and the FA Cup in England, was named European Player of the Year and World Footballer of the Year in 1995, was African Footballer of the Year in 1989, 1994 and 1995, and was voted African Player of the Century by sports journalists. For arguably his most celebrated Milan goal, check out 2:10 in the video where Weah dribbles straight through the Verona team and scores.
There’s not as much video footage of Cameroon’s Roger Milla on the internet. But he won the African Cup of Nations in 1984 and 1988, played for five French Ligue 1 clubs and played at three World Cups. Milla wrote himself into football history by scoring four goals at the Italia ‘90 World Cup, propelling Cameroon to the quarter-finals and - at age 38 - becoming the oldest player ever to score at the finals. Four years later Milla returned to score at the USA ‘94 World Cup at the age of 42, just to make sure. He was African Footballer of the Year in 1976 and 1990, and a 2007 public vote on the Confederation of African Football website recently elected Milla as the best African player of the last 50 years.
And then there’s Abedi Pelé, who won the African Cup of Nations with Ghana in 1982, as well as several French titles and the 1993 Champions League with Marseille. He was African Footballer of the Year in 1991, 1992 and 1993.
In many ways it doesn’t matter who “the greatest” of these players is. They were all incredible players, and can all claim various achievements. Roger Milla scored at the World Cup and is still the oldest World Cup scorer of all time, while Pele and Weah never made it to the world’s biggest stage. Abedi Pelé won the Champions League with Marseille, something neither Weah nor Milla accomplished. George Weah won trophies in France, Italy and England, which neither Pelé nor Milla can match. And they can’t match Weah’s stellar 1995 when he was named African, European and World Footballer of the Year.
So really and truly it doesn’t matter who’s the greatest, because all three are great. And there may be other players who deserve to be mentioned alongside Milla, Pelé and Weah. If so, let us know about them by leaving a comment.
What really interests me is how the current African superstars compare. So the big question is: are the likes of Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba ready to be ranked among the greatest African footballers of all time? Or should we not even be talking about Eto’o and Drogba in the same breath as Milla, Pelé and Weah until after they’ve retired and we can look back at their full careers?
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Comments
By Brad | January 18th, 2008 at 1:50 am 
Let’s not forget my man Adebayor. I know he’s not quite on the same level of Eto’o and Drogba yet but he’s 3 years younger than Samuel and 6 years younger than Didier. And if this season in the premiership is any indication, he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as those 2. But like you caution, that’s my opinion. 
Posted from 
Canada
By ghjghjf | January 18th, 2008 at 3:38 am …this question is for future.please come & see
By AJ | January 18th, 2008 at 1:09 pm Drogba = the best.
Eto’o = overrated.
Posted from Canada
By Inara | January 18th, 2008 at 1:44 pm Maybe it’s because I’m a Lyon fan (basically still dreaming of CL glory), but my vote goes with Pele, who played such an important role in bringing European glory to so far the only French team.
Right now, my vote is for Drogba, who’s form this year is better than any other African. But it could change, assuming Eto’o gets back his form of 2005-2006.
And as much as it pains me to say this, since I don’t wish Michael Essien any glory, I think he will eventually go down as one of the best African players in Europe.
Posted from 
United States
By Dbo_da_God | January 18th, 2008 at 3:05 pm Ghana’s Pele unquestionably is the greatest African footballer of our time, however lets not forget that George Oppong Weah showed such class never before seen as well, and of course the Legend lion himself, good old Roger Milla, but currently in terms of pure talent and pure instinct, role by role, Samuel Eto’o is the s**t, and then u have to consider the man who’s heart is bigger than a bison itself, Michael Essien…and u know you cant talk about super classico pure predatory scoring talent without mentioning Didier Drogba…i also like Emmanuel Eboue, Adebayor, the evergreen Kanu, Obafemi Martins, Stephen Appiah.
Posted from United States
By Sam | January 18th, 2008 at 4:51 pm I wrote an essay about how I thought it was George Weah on 101greatgoals last year… and I won a copy of 23 Sweet FA’s.
Posted from Canada
By Steve | January 18th, 2008 at 4:52 pm He may not be the best African footballer of all time but as an Englishman I will not forget the impact Tony Yeboah made when he played for Leeds. His goals against Liverpool and Wimbledon were unreal.
Posted from United States
By Steve | January 18th, 2008 at 5:12 pm Another aside to this arguement is where Eusebio would fit in here (Mozambique national which was then a province of Portugal)
Posted from United States
By Eddy | January 19th, 2008 at 10:18 am I think all this arguments are pure nonsense,lets use only common sense here.
Abedi Pele was a great player,Roger Milla too,but i think the best player Africa has ever had is definitely George Weah.He did not play at the world cup and not much tournament play for Liberia,but he is still the only African player to have won it all.
WORLD BEST PLAYER
EUROPEAN BEST PLAYER
AFRICAN BEST PLAYER
can anybody beat that?
Posted from 
Israel
By vocalman | January 21st, 2008 at 11:07 am abedi pele did not win the african footballer of the year in 1993. it was won by rashidi yekini of nigeria. get your facts right.
By aki kawasaki | January 26th, 2008 at 5:30 pm The best African footballers are Drogba,Eto’o and Adebayor
Posted from 
Serbia And Montenegro
By Bman | January 26th, 2008 at 5:48 pm That Columbian goalkeeper was an absolute moron. He was out in midfield all the time during that worlld cup. Milla did not allow it lol
Posted from United States
By Daryl | January 26th, 2008 at 7:00 pm vocalman,
In 1993 and 1994 there were two separate African Player of the Year awards that overlapped.
Both France Football and CAF gave out awards. In ‘93 Abedi Pele won the France Football African Player of the Year Award and Rashidi Yekini won the CAF Player of the Year Award.
So you’re correct that the CAF award did go to Yekini in ‘93, but the African ballon d’or went to Pele for the third time in a row that year.
By Peter | February 28th, 2008 at 10:35 am Why do you rule Michael Essien out.I think he is one of the great players in African football, If i may say second to Roger Miller.
Posted from Ghana
Posted from 
United Kingdom
By Peter | February 28th, 2008 at 10:47 am Why do you rule Michael Essien out.I think he is one of the great players in African football, If i may say second to Roger Miller.
Posted from United Kingdom
By shakir hasnain | February 28th, 2008 at 6:58 pm what about jay jay okocha? in terms of skill no one comes even within dribbling distance of jay jay
Posted from 
Austria
By Tatu | April 15th, 2008 at 7:12 am well leaving out the likes of abedi, weah, and milla. God as my witness l simply don’t see a player who nears Samuel Eto’o as the finest african player of all time. Hands down, Period
Posted from 
Uganda
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