Not sure if this is worthy of a thread but any way there was a thread a while back on this very topic and I thought it would be an interesting one to explore, though I must admit ignorance. I tried making a team but gave up with this sketch below: --------------Grobbelaar?---------------- --????----????----Toure?----????---- --F. George----Essein----A. Pele----????---- -----------Weah-----Eto'o-------- I'm obviously not including players who were born in Africa but played for European NTs (so no Eusebio) and am somewhat biased towards those that played for big European clubs. There seems to be a lack of strong African defenders, almost none came to mind other than Toure (Would Emmanuel Eboue really be a contender for best ever African Right back?). This is while there is a great deal of (relative)strength in the forwards department: I tried finding room for Madjer and also for Yekini but did not succeed. Anyone?
Noureddine Naybet used to be quite good a central defender. Mustapha Hadji and Youssef Chippo were also good from what I remember. Sammy Kuffour? Geremi? Lauren? Wasn't Hany Ramzy a good LB a while ago? Hossam Hassan deserves a mention. Roger Milla, too. Rigobert Song perhaps (although he was never that good).
Inspiring to a quest on, besides mentions a first name to spring to mind was for some reason Drogba. Defender Fish, maybe? Also Bouderbala showed. Nice pick, although up to now I'd keep with Milla from Cameroon. Eusébio again, as a representative only, wouldn't claim his likes for the role too. Not really that impartial resource it might seem, for me, but worthy of checking link for missing places in your choice, Borruma: http://web.archive.org/web/20080110...sf.com/miscellaneous/iffhs-century.html#afpoy.
Right, off the top of my head: --------------- N'Kono --------------- ----- Radebe -- Song -- Naybet ------ --------------- Essien --------------- ------ Khumalo ----- Aboutrika ------- -------------- Okocha --------------- -- Adébi Pelé -- Weah ----- Eto'o ----- Had to leave out some pretty decent players like Milla and Kanu.
That's really difficult!, I could make some initial teams but I believe I don't know enough about some African players before 90's.
What about Biri Biri? He's almost forgotten now, but he was one of the first African player to star for a big European club (Sevilla). He was a winger from Gambia.
You're probably thinking of Bwalya, pretty good player who had a decent career in Europe. He definitely didn't die in that plane crash though because he was the coach of the Zambian national team up until a few years ago.
A player that deserves to be mentioned is Salif Keita, one of the major stars of French football in the late-60s/early-70s: Keita, Salif (“Domingo”) *1946, Mali, inside forward 13 Caps (11 goals): 1963-1972 Golden Ball Africa 1971 346 league appearances (217 goals) 1963-1964 Pionniers de Ouolofobougou 1964-1965 Real de Bamako 1965-1966 Stade de Malien 1965-1967 Real de Bamako 1967-1972 AS St. Etienne 1972-1973 Olympique Marseille 1973-1976 FC Valencia 1976-1979 Sporting Lisboa 1979-1980 New England Tea Men Boston
Salif Keita was wonderful. The "Black Panther" arrives from Mali at Paris-Orly airport where he asks... a taxi to drive him to Saint-Etienne (app. 600km). ASSE chairman Roger Rocher will say "that's a taxi bill worth to be paid". From 1967 and 1970 he wins three titles and the Cup. In 1969, he scores two goals against Bayern Munich (3-0) in the C1 first round. First exploit of les Verts in Europe. In 1972 he leaves to Marseille to be associated with the OM legends Josip Skoblar (Golden Shoe 1971) and Roger Magnusson (the White Garrincha). (And in 1975 they will be replaced by Jairzinho and Paulo Cesar, the World champions) He stays only one year before going to Valencia and Sporting. He was quite a n°10 of those years. In these years at Saint-Etienne there was the Algerian midfielder Rachid Mekloufi who was a really great player too. Pure class. Regarding the All-time african, I've debated that on a forum and we concluded two lists (Black Africa and North Africa): Gardien André Arendse Carlos Kameni Joseph antoine Bell Defenseurs Mark Fish Rigobert Song Lucas Radebe Celestine Babayaro Taribo West Samuel Kuffour Cyril Domoraud Milieux Abedi Pelé Mahamadou Diarra Daniel Amokachi Michael Essien Japhet N'Doram Salif Keita Augustine Okocha Finidi George Attaquants George Weah Roger Milla Samuel eto'o Didier Drogba Nwankwo Kanu Gardien Badou Zaki Chokri El Ouaer Essam El-Hadary Defenseurs Nourredine Naybet Hany Ramzi Miloud Hadfi Khaled Ben Yahya Hédi Berrekhissa Mahieddine Meftah Ibrahim Hassan Milieux Mahmoud El-Khatib Mohamed Timouni Mustapha Hadji Hassen Lalmas Abdelmajid Dolmy Rachid Mekhloufi Tarak Dhiab Mustapha Dahleb Abou Trika Ahmed Hassan Attaquants Rabah Madjer Hossam Hassan Akesbi Ahmed Faras Lakhdar Belloumi Staff Hassan Shehata Abdelhamid Kermali Abdelmajid Chetali Mahmoud El-Gohary
A fine article on the next WC host, following the fine collaborations above. http://www.fifa.com/confederationscup/destination/footballsouthafrica/stars.html