Mo Salah, Riyad Mahrez, Sébastian Haller and Sadio Mané will be in the running to top-score at CAN 2021, but Samuel Eto'o's record will remain intact.
The covid-delayed 2021 Africa Cup of Nations kicks off on Monday 9 January in Cameroon with Algeria seeking to defend their 2019 title as 24 teams vie to be crowned continental champions. The host nation get the ball rolling against Burkina Faso in Group A and the knock-out stages are due to start on 23 January, with the final to be staged at the Paul Biya Stadium in Yaoundé on 6 February.
Senegal, Algeria, Ivory Coast and Cameroon are the bookies’ favourites to lift the trophy but Egypt, led by Liverpool’s Mo Salah and champions in 2006, 2008 and 2010, will also be in the running along with Morocco and Nigeria, who possess one of the most in-form strikers in international football, Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, who scored five in eight games for the Super Eagles in 2021 and has 10 in 18 overall.
In terms of goal scorers, the Africa Cup of Nations will showcase some of the finest in world football. Salah is the overwhelming favourite to end the tournament as top scorer but Sébastian Haller is in the form of his life, the Ivory Coast forward scoring 10 goals in the Champions League group stage for Ajax and becoming only the second player, after Cristiano Ronaldo, to find the net in every game of the opening round and the fastest in history to reach 10 goals in the competition.
Other forwards to keep an eye include Riyad Mahrez (Algeria), Sadio Mané (Senegal), Baghdad Bounedjah (Algeria), Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) – who scored the winning goal in the 2017 final – and Youssef En-Nesyri (Morocco), who was prolific for Sevilla last season but has been out injured for much of 2021-22, returning to action in December.
Africa Cup of Nations top scorers
The likelihood of anyone matching Samuel Eto’o’s record in the competition is remote. The former Cameroon forward bagged 18 goals in Cup of Nations action, becoming the outright top scorer of all time in 2008 when he scored from the spot against Sudan to overtake the late Laurent Pokou, who was top scorer at both the 1968 and 1970 Cup of Nations for Ivory Coast, memorably bagging five in a single game against Egypt at the latter tournament.
Third in the all-time list is Rashidi Yekeni, Nigeria’s all-time leading goal scorer who enjoyed an eclectic career that included stints at Olympiacos, Sporting Gijón, Vitória Setúbal and FC Zürich. Yekeni was top scorer at the 1994 Cup of Nations as Nigeria were crowned champions and also holds the distinction of scoring Nigeria’s first-ever World Cup goal, against Bulgaria at USA 1994.
All-time leading Cup of Nations top scorers
Players to have scored 10 or more goals at the Africa Cup of Nations
1: Samuel Eto’o: Cameroon (18)
2: Laurent Pokou: Ivory Coast (14)
3: Rashidi Yekeni: Nigeria (13)
4: Hassan El-Shazly: Egypt (12)
5: Patrick Mboma: Cameroon; Hossam Hassan: Egypt; Didier Drogba: Ivory Coast (11)
6: Ndaye Mulamba: DRC; Joel Tiéhi: Ivory Coast: Mengitsu Worku: Ethiopia; Dos Santos: Tunisia; Kalusha Bwalya: Zambia (10)