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Despite the health crisis, almost all the football championships for the 2019-2020 season were able to come to an end. And the competitions resumed this summer. Focus on the five African players who have shone since the start of the season.
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Egyptian Mohamed Salah, always higher
On a football field, it’s at 28 that a striker is supposed to be at his best. This belief seems in any case to be valid for Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian always does what he knows how to do best: to score. Author of 19 goals during the 2019-2020 season during which Liverpool managed to regain an English league title that had eluded them for thirty years, Salah restarted the following year on such a high basis (10 goals in Premier League as of December 13). He continues to form with the Senegalese Sadio Mané a tandem still as effective, and on which rests part of the success of the Reds, whose proposed game is one of the most spectacular in Europe. Everything suggests that Mohamed Salah, rightly considered one of the best strikers in the world, will one day leave the banks of the Mersey. His market value oscillates between 130 and 150 million euros, an admittedly high sum, to which must be added his salary (11 million euros gross). But that does not prevent Real Madrid, in particular, from considering recruiting him.
Burkinabé Lassina Traoré, the revelation
He tiptoed to Ajax Amsterdam in 2018 from Ajax Cape Town, a partner club of the Dutch giant. The young Burkinabé striker, who will be 20 in January, had contented himself with a few matches with the first team, continuing his apprenticeship with the under-21s. This season, the cousin of Bertrand Traoré, the Aston Villa striker also passed by Ajax, has become a holder of the Lancers. He notably scored five goals in Ajax’s stunning victory at Venlo (13-0) in October. Versatile, since he is able to play on the sides or at the edge, powerful and skilful in front of goals, the Burkinabé will be able to take the time to flourish within this club which knows how to trust young players, and whose the only dogma is to practice resolutely attacking football.
Moroccan Youssef En-Nesyri, the rising star
Youssef En-Nesyri (23 years old) is a pure product of Moroccan training. Coming from the Mohammed VI Academy, from which came out, among others, Nayef Aguerd (Rennes) and Hamza Mendyl (Schalke 04), the striker has spent his professional career in Spain. First in Malaga, which had bought it in 2015 for 125,000 euros, then in Leganès. It is now at Sevilla FC, one of the best clubs in the country, and which he joined in January, for 20 million euros – i.e. the double disbursed by Leganès – that this tall striker (1.89 m) and powerful continues its rise. After winning the Europa League against Inter Milan (3-2), the Moroccan allowed the Andalusian club to cross the first round of the 2020-2021 Champions League, scoring four goals. Involved in several league goals, he has also been effective with the Moroccan team, of which he is one of the executives, scoring three goals in his last four matches.
Belgo-Congolese Théo Bongonda explodes the counters
Born in Charleroi to parents from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Théo Bongonda (25) has repeatedly said that he would play for the Leopards, the Congolese national team, if Belgium did not call on him. For the moment, the stiff competition in the offensive sector of the Red Devils has not opened the doors to the selection of his country of birth. Still, Bongonda, who is approaching an average of a goal per game, is doing everything to get noticed. Trained at the Académie Jean-Marc Guillou, he was sold in June 2019 for 7 million euros by Zulte-Waregem in Genk, making him the symbol of the most expensive transfer between two Belgian clubs. Bongonda, after two failed experiences in Spain (Celta Vigo) and Turkey (Trabzonspor) between 2015 and 2018, returned to Belgium to regain confidence. Even if the player, during the rare interviews he gives, seems to doubt anything, and especially not him. All the Flat Country still remembers his famous statement: “Do you have a better player than me since I played in Belgium? “
The Zimbabwean Tino Kadewere, the “warrior” of Lyon
Zimbabwean players rarely go to Europe. Tino Kadewere, 24, arrived discreetly in Djurgarden (Sweden) in 2015, in direct line from Harare, joined Olympique Lyonnais in 2020, after a prolific stint in Le Havre, in league 2. The Rhone club, deprived of the Coupe d ‘Europe this season, relies in particular on the effectiveness of the striker of the Zimbabwe Warriors. After a timid start, he put on a series of good performances and often decisive goals, like those registered in Angers (1-0) and, above all, at the Parc des Princes, against PSG (1-0), on December 13. And his professionalism coincides with the good end of the year in Lyon, whose objective is to return to the European scene in the summer of 2021. Kadewere, marked by the close deaths of his father, in 2014, and of his brother, in August, today stands out as one of the best strikers in Ligue 1.
