Samuel Eto’o remains the most outstanding top scorer at AfCON finals with 18 goals in 29 appearances

* The first two saw him lift the trophy but it was in 2006 and 2008 where he twice won the Golden Boot, both with five goals

* Coming second is Côte d’Ivoire’s Laurent Pokou with 14 goals, who twice won the Golden Boot at the AfCON 1968

Maravi Express

The Africa Cup of Nations (AfCON) Morocco 2025, whose draw will be held on Monday, January 17 at the Mohammed V National Theatre in Rabat, sets the stage for players to enter the history books and provide feats of brilliance that will live long in the memory.

Those that have made history include being leading scorers at the finals —  Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon); Laurent Pokou (Côte d’Ivoire); Rashidi Yekini (Nigeria); Hassan El-Shazly (Egypt); Patrick Mboma (Cameroon); Hossam Hassan (Egypt); and Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire).

Of these Legends, Samuel Eto’o is the most prolific scorer in AfCON finals history, whose 18 goals came in 29 appearances (0.62 goals per game) over six tournaments between 2000 and 2010.

The first two of those saw him lift the trophy with the Indomitable Lions, but it was in 2006 and 2008 (both five goals) where he twice won the Golden Boot.

His long and storied international career lasted 17 years between 1997 and 2014, during which time he won 114 caps and scored 56 goals — that makes him Cameroon’s all-time leading scorer.  

Eto’o is followed by Côte d’Ivoire’s Laurent Pokou with 14 goals, who twice won the Golden Boot at the AfCON 1968 when he netted six goals, and two years later when he bagged another eight.

That included five goals in a single game against Ethiopia, which remains an AfCON record — but sadly for him, the Elephants did not make the final on either occasion.

However, his record of 14 goals in 12 games and a ‘goals-per-match’ ratio of 1.17 is second only to El-Shazly among the leading scorers.  

Next is Rashidi Yekini with 13 goals, the burly striker, who helped Nigeria to the 1994 AfCON title and was runner-up on a further three occasions in 1984, 1988 and 1990.

Often referred to as the greatest Nigerian striker of all time, Yekini won the Golden Boot and Best Player at the 1994 AfCON as Nigeria took home the title.

He was also a star for Nigeria at the FIFA World Cup that same year, and finished his international career with 37 goals in 62 caps to be the Super Eagles’ all-time leading scorer.

Thirteen of those goals came in 20 appearances at the AfCON finals.

Egypt’s Hassan El-Shazly’s 12 goals has the best goals per match ratio of any of the leading scorers after netting 12 times in just eight appearances, or 1.50 goals per game.

He played in three finals (1963, 1970 and 1974) and got a hat-trick against Nigeria in the first of those. He netted six goals in that competition and won the Golden Boot.

He netted five more in 1970, including a hat-trick against Côte d’Ivoire, which makes him still today the only player to net two finals ‘trebles’.

He managed a final goal in 1974 and ended with an impressive 49 international strikes in 62 caps.

Didier Drogba shares 11 apiece with two other Legends, Hossam Hassan and Patrick Mboma. Considered one of the best strikers of his generation anywhere in the world, Drogba was the veteran of five AfCON tournaments and netted 11 times in 21 matches, a rate of a 0.45 goals per game.

He was part of the Côte d’Ivoire ‘Golden Generation’ but never lifted the AfCON trophy, despite being runner-up in 2006 and 2012. He finished with 65 goals in 105 caps in all competitions, making the all-time leading scorer for the Côte d’Ivoire national team.

Mboma was a key part of the Cameroon sides that lifted the AfCON title in 2000 and 2002, and managed 11 goals in 17 games (0.65 per match) during four visits to the finals.

That included a hat-trick against Zimbabwe in 2004. He scored in the 2000 decider as Cameroon defeated Nigeria 2-0, and got a crucial strike in a 1-0 quarter-final win over Egypt two years later as the Indomitable Lions defended their title.

Hossam Hassan played in a hugely impressive seven AfCON finals tournaments, winning three of them with the victories 20 years apart — with the p first coming in 1986, before it was his opener in the decider 12 years later that helped Egypt beat South Africa 2-0.

He was joint top scorer in that tournament with South Africa’s Benni McCarthy as they each netted seven goals.

His final goal came in 2006 as Egypt defeated DR Congo 4-1 in the quarter-finals on their way to lifting the trophy again. He netted 11 goals in 21 finals appearances, or 0.52 goals per game.He is Egypt’s all-time leading scorer with 69 goals in 177 caps.

Meanwhile, there are only two Legends with the greatest number of appearances at the AfCON, Ghana’s Andre Ayew and Rigobert Song from Cameroon with 36 each.

Both competed at eight finals tournaments, with Song appearing successively from the 1996 edition in South Africa to the 2010 tournament in Angola.

Rigobert won the tournament twice in 2000 and 2002 and was a runner-up in 2008 and at the 2000 final in Lagos, he converted the winning kick in the post-match penalty shootout.

He played 35 successive matches at the finals in the starting line-up while his 36th game was a substitute appearance against Tunisia in the last group game of the 2010 edition in Lubango, Angola.

Andre Ayew, son to former African Player of the Year, Abedi Pele Ayew, first appeared at the finals in 2008 in Ghana and he has played in all since, except the 2013 finals in South Africa.

Ayew was a teenager when selected for the 2008 finals which Ghana hosted and he came on as a substitute in all three group games before starting for the first time in the semi-final loss to Rigobert Song’s Cameroon.

Two years later in Angola he played in the final as Ghana lost to Egypt and was also a runner-up in the 2015 edition in Equatorial Guinea, which the Black Stars lost on post-match penalties to Cote d’Ivoire.

Andre Ayew did not participate in the 2013 finals, where he chose to sit out the tournament, and had he taken part would surely have the record for the most tournaments and appearances.

His father, Abedi Pele was one of the first African football players to earn a top placing in FIFA World Player of the Year voting, doing so in 1991 and 1992.

He won the France Football African Player of the Year Award three consecutive years, was the inaugural winner of the BBC African Sports Star of the Year in 1992, and the corresponding Confederation of African Football award twice.

Abedi Pele also holds the record for most appearances at the AfCON making his first appearance at the in Libya in 1982 and continued to compete at the tournament for the next 16 years, his last appearance coming in the 1998 edition in Burkina Faso.

Aside from his exploits at the 1992 competition, Abedi Pele also earned much acclaim for his three goals at the 1996 competition, where he led Ghana to the semi-finals of the competition despite critics expecting him to be in the twilight of his career.—Content by CAFonline; editing by Maravi Express