South African punters who are interested in AFCON betting tips can learn more about the tournament’s top scorers. In this article, we’ll explore the current AFCON top scorers, and provide some scorer predictions for the 2024 AFCON. If you’re looking for more informations on AFCON and betting, don’t hesitate to check our AFCON Betting Guide.
Top 10 AFCON Top Scorers
Punters can find the list of the 10 AFCON top scorers of all time in the section below.
Samuel Eto’o
Leading the list of the AFCON top scorers is the Cameroonian striker, Samuel Eto’o with 18 goals. The famous forward played 29 AFCON matches for the Cameroon national team. Throughout all competitions, Eto’o racked up 56 goals in 118 appearances. He assisted his team win various trophies, including the back-to-back African Cup of Nations, in 2000 and 2002.
Throughout his club career, Eto’o played in some of the very best clubs worldwide including the well-known Barcelona side that dominated the early 2000s. Additionally, he helped his team win 2 Champions League titles while in Barcelona before relocating to Inter Milan. In Italy, the striker discovered his best form, and won the treble under Jose Mourinho, winning the Champions League, Serie A, and Coppa Italia.
Laurent Pokou
Pokou was among the most popular African players of his time. The Ivorian international spent the majority of his club career in France playing for Stade Rennais FC.
However, Pokou’s best moments came with his national team. The striker finished among the AFCON top scorers twice and scored a total of 21 goals in 30 matches for Ivorian Coast. Of those 21 goals, 14 came in the AFCON tournament.
Rasheed Yekini
The third in the history of AFCON top scorers is Nigeria’s all-time best scorer. In the 62 appearances for his country, Yekini scored 37 goals, including Nigeria’s first-ever World Cup goal. When it comes to AFCON competitions, Yekini scored 13 times in 24 appearances.
Furthermore, his best result came in the 1994 AFCON tournament, where he helped Nigeria lift the coveted trophy. Yekini was also named the competition’s best player and received the AFCON top scorers award for his contribution.
Hassan El-Shazly
Hassan El-Shazly is the fourth in the history of AFCON top scorers of all time. The Egyptian scored an impressive 12 goals, while only making 10 appearances in AFCON competition. Overall, El-Shazly scored 42 times in his national career in only 62 matches.
The Egyptian spent his whole club career playing for Tersana and still holds the record for most goals scored in a single season in Egypt with 34.
Didier Drogba
The famous Ivorian striker makes this list with 11 goals in AFCON tournaments. Drogba made his national debut back in 2002 and came to be the nation’s captain in 2006. His best accomplishments with the country consist of 2 AFCON finals in 2010 and 2014. However, they failed to win either tournament, losing on penalties in both finals.
In total, the powerful striker scored 65 times in 105 matches for his national side.
Hossam Hassan
The second Egyptian football player to make this list is Hossam Hassan. The ex-international player is among the leading scorers for Egypt’s national side scoring 68 times in 176 appearances. In addition, when it comes to the AFCON competition, Hassan struck the net 11 times in 21 matches and raised the African Cup of Nations trophy 3 times throughout his international career.
Over the course of his club career, Hassan played over 400 matches, scoring 179 goals.
Patrick M’Boma
Another Cameroonian striker to make this list is Patrick M’Boma. The striker played most of his international career partnered with Eto’o, as the two forwards helped their country lift the 2000, and 2002 AFCON tournaments. During this time, M’Boma was named the African Player of the Year in 2000, and the top scorer of the 2002 AFCON competition. In total, M’Boma scored 11 goals in 17 AFCON matches.
Kalusha Bwalya
The only Zambian player to make this list is Kalusha Bwalya, with 10 goals scored in 23 matches. The forward represented his country for 21 years, scoring 39 goals while making 87 appearances in the Zambian shirt. Bwalya’s greatest achievement was the 1994 AFCON, where his side ended as runners-up, losing to Nigeria in the finals. In the following AFCON, Bwalya captained the Zambian team to a third-place finish.
Bwalya returned to win the AFCON in 2012 as the Zambian FA president and was an ambassador for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Joël Tiéhi
Another Ivorian player that makes the AFCON top scorers list is Joël Tiéhi, who scored 10 times in 15 AFCON matches. He played in 4 editions of the competition, specifically in 1992, 1994, 1996 as well as 1998.F
Santos
The final player on this list is the Tunisian forward, Santos. Although his international career lasted only from 2004 to 2008, Santos managed to score 10 goals in only 12 AFCON games played. The Tunisian made his debut in the 2004 AFCON, where he finished among the 5 joint top scorers. Furthermore, Santos enjoyed a solid tournament at AFCON 2006, when Tunisia reached the quarter-finals.
AFCON Top Scorers Predictions for 2024
When it comes to the 2024 AFCON predictions there are several names that stand out for the top-scorer award. Among them are Victor Osimhen, Sadio Mane, and Patson Daka. Currently, Osimhen leads the scoring charts for AFCON’s main qualifiers with 7 goals to his name. Moreover, Senegal’s Sadio Mane has scored 5 goals in the tournament so far, while Daka has 4 goals.
AFCON Top Scorers FAQs
If punters would like to learn more about AFCON top scorers, check out the FAQ section below. If you’re looking for results, check our AFCON Results review.
The players leading the AFCON predictions for 2024 top scorer are Victor Osimhen, Sadio Mane, and Patson Daka. They are leading the charts for AFCON 2024 main qualifications phase, with 7, 5, and 4 goals, respectively.
The most goals scored in AFCON is 18, and the record-holder is Cameroonian striker Eto’o.
Ndaye Mulamba holds the record for most AFCON goals in a single tournament, with 9 goals. He managed this in the 1974 AFCON while playing for Zaire, now DR Congo.
Benni McCarthy is South Africa’s leading AFCON goal scorer of all time, with 7 goals in 12 matches.
