Salah breaks Drogba’s record – Top ten African goalscorers in Champions League

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45 goals for Liverpool 

It was a historic night for Mohamed Salah at Anfield on Wednesday night as the Egyptian king scored Liverpool’s second goal in the 2-0 win over Bologna. Arne Slot recorded his eighth win in nine games since replacing Jürgen Klopp, which represents a record start for a Liverpool manager but Salah also secured a famous accolade.

The 32-year-old netted a brilliant curling effort to secure three points for Liverpool and it was Salah’s 45th goal in the Champions League – excluding qualifying. That represents a record for an African player in the history of European football’s most prestigious club competition since its inauguration in 1955. Salah has featured in the Champions League for Liverpool, Roma, Chelsea and Basel and he overtook another English Premier League legend to become the top scoring African player in Champions League history.

Salah’s 45 goals have arrived in 81 Champions League appearances and he’s also provided 16 assists. The Egyptian has also scored four goals in Champions League qualifying but those figures haven’t been included in our list. Salah made his Champions League debut during the 2013/14 season, scoring twice for Basel. 42 of the winger’s goals in the competition have arrived at Liverpool with Salah netting once for Roma in 2015.

 As the graphic above illustrates, Salah overtook Chelsea icon Didier Drogba’s tally last night with the Ivorian netting 44 goals in 92 games in the competition. Drogba’s best night in the Champions League arrived in the 2012 final in Munich when he scored the equalising goal and the winning penalty in the shoot-out against Bayern Munich as Chelsea lifted the famous trophy for the first time in their history. Cameroon icon Samuel Eto’o won the Champions League three times and he ranks third with 30 goals in 78 games. Two former Premier League stars complete the top five in Sadio Mané and Rihad Mahrez – both now playing in Saudi Arabia.