Yaya Touré
He was born on 13th May 1983, he is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for English club Manchester City and the Ivory Coast national team.
Touré is known for combining passing ability and physical power with technique. A versatile player, he aspired to be a striker during his youth and has played centre back, including for FC Barcelona in the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final. He frequently plays as a box-to-box midfielder for club and country and often switches from defensive and attacking positions throughout matches. Touré began his playing career at Ivorian club ASEC Mimosas, where he made his debut aged 18. He was voted African Footballer of the Year for 2011, 2012 and 2013.
His performances attracted attention from Europe, playing for clubs in various European leagues. Touré played for Beveren in Belgium, Metalurh Donetsk in Ukraine, Olympiacos in Greece, and AS Monaco in France. In 2007, Touré moved to Barcelona, playing over 100 matches for the club and was part of the historic 2009 Barcelona team which won six trophies in one calendar year.
Yaya Touré then moved to Premier League club Manchester City in 2010, where he has since scored a number of key goals for the Citizens – most notably the only goals in the 2011 FA Cup semi-final and final. Touré has a distinguished international career with 82 caps for the Ivory Coast, representing the team in their first appearance in a FIFA World Cup, in the 2006 competition, and also played in the 2010 and 2014 tournaments. He is the younger brother of his Ivory Coast teammate Kolo Touré. They also played together at Manchester City for three years, before Kolo was transferred to Liverpool in 2013. Yaya Toure got a sign on fee of 13 million pounds, gets a weekly wage of 250 thousand pounds and a net worth $11.4million?
Didier Drogba
The prolific striker was born on March 11, 1978. He is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays for Chelsea in the Premier League as a striker, and is the all-time top scorer and former captain of the Ivory Coast national team. He is best known for his career at Chelsea, for whom he scored more goals than any other foreign player and is currently the club’s fourth highest goal scorer of all time. In October 2012, he was voted by Chelsea supporters as the club’s greatest ever player. He has also been named African Footballer of the Year twice, winning the accolade in 2006 and 2009.
After playing in youth teams, Drogba made his professional debut aged 18 for Ligue 2 club Le Mans, and signed his first professional contract aged 21. After finishing the 2002–03 season with 17 goals in 34 appearances for Ligue 1 side Guingamp, he moved to Olympique de Marseille, where he finished as the third highest scorer in the 2003–04 season with 19 goals and helped the club reach the 2004 UEFA Cup Final.
In the summer of 2004, Drogba moved to Chelsea for a club record £24 million fee, making him the most expensive Ivorian player in history. In his debut season he helped the club win their first league title in 50 years, and a year later he won another Premier League title. In March 2012, he became the first African player to score 100 Premier League goals and also became the only player in history to score in four separate FA Cup finals the same year, when he scored in Chelsea’s win over Liverpool in the 2012 final. He also played in the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final, in which he scored an 88th-minute equaliser and the winning penalty in the deciding shoot-out against Bayern Munich. After spending 6 months with Shanghai Shenhua in China and one and a half seasons with Turkish giants Galatasaray, Drogba returned to Chelsea in July 2014.
An Ivory Coast international between 2002 and 2014, Drogba captained the national team from 2006 until his retirement and is the nation’s all-time top goalscorer with 65 goals from 104 appearances. He led the Ivory Coast to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, their first appearance in the tournament, and also scored their first goal. He later captained the Ivory Coast at the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups. He was part of the Ivory Coast teams that reached the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2006 and 2012, but were beaten on penalties on both occasions. On 8 August 2014, he announced his retirement from international football. He got a sign on fee of 10million pounds, a weekly wage of 150 pounds and net worth $35million?
Emmanuel Adebayor
Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor was born 26th of February 1984. He is a Togolese footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the Togo national team. Adebayor previously played for Metz, Monaco, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Manchester City. He was voted African Footballer of the Year for 2008.
Adebayor represented the Togo national football team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the country’s début, and to date only, appearance at the World Cup. In January 2010, Adebayor was one of the players involved when the Togo team’s bus came under gunfire on the way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, after which he retired from national team duty. In 2013, he returned to the Togo team for the 2013 African Cup of Nations in South Africa, where he helped them to qualify for the quarterfinals. He is currently Togo’s all-time top goal scorer with 27 goals.
A towering striker, Adebayor is described as being “tall, skilful and strong in the air and with the ability to score and create goals. Adeebayo was signed on with the sum of 8 million pounds. He gets a weekly wage of 120,000 pounds and a net worth $15million?
Samuel Eto’o
He was born on March 10, 1981 and is a Cameroonian footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Everton and formerly for the Cameroon national team. He is the most decorated African player of all time having won the African Player of the Year award a record four times: in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2010. He was third in the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 2005.
Eto’o scored over 100 goals in five seasons with Barcelona, and is also the record holder in number of appearances by an African player in La Liga. In 2010, he became the first player to win two European continental trebles following his back-to-back achievements with Barcelona and Inter Milan. He is the second player in history to score in two UEFA Champions League finals and the fourth player, after Marcel Desailly, Paulo Sousa, and Gerard Piqué, to have won the trophy two years in a row with different teams.
As a member of the Cameroon national team, Eto’o was a part of the squad that won the 2000 Olympic tournament. He has also participated in three World Cups and six Africa Cup of Nations (being champion twice) and is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations, with 18 goals. He is also Cameroon’s all-time leading scorer and third most capped player, with 56 goals from 118 caps. He announced his retirement from international football on 27 August 2014. He was signed with the sum of 5.5 million pounds, gets a weekly salary of 75,000 pounds and net worth $55million?
John Obi Mikel
John Michael Nchekwube Obinna was born on 22nd of April 1987. He is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for English club Chelsea and the Nigeria national team. Mikel was born in Jos, Nigeria. He is the son of Michael Obi, who runs an inter-state transport company in Jos, the capital of Plateau State. As his father was a member of the Igbo ethnic group, “Nchekwube” means “hope” and “Obi” is a nickname for the Igbo name “Obinna” (meaning “Father´s heart“).
Mikel started his official football career at the age of 12 when picked as a talented footballer from over 3000 young talents to play in Pepsi Football Academy. A team which at that particular time was well known for going around Nigeria to search for the best there is from all the upcoming future stars, young talents to later move on to rather more professional football. Already then Obi stood out to all the scouts. He got picked to play in a top-flight team Plateau United also known for making stars from players like Celestine Babayaro, Victor Obinna, Chris Obodo and many more which moved on to playing in European teams and representing their country later on in their careers. Later known as John Obi Mikel he was gaining headlines for his country at the FIFA Under-17 World Championships held in Finland. Subsequently he went on trial to South Africa club Ajax Cape Town, before joining Lyn in Norway.
During preparations for the 2003 FIFA Under-17 World Championships, the Nigerian Football Association mistakenly submitted “Michael” as “Mikel” for the tournament in Finland. He decided to keep the new name, saying that it had a special ring to it. On 31 July 2006, he stated that he prefers to be called Mikel John Obi instead of John Obi Mikel, as he had most commonly been called.
In the summer of 2005, Mikel played for Nigeria at the FIFA World Youth Championships held in the Netherlands. He had an excellent tournament until Nigeria reached the final, where they lost 2–1 to Argentina. Obi won the Silver Ball after being voted the tournament’s second best player. He got a sign on fee of 4.5million pounds, gets a weekly 65,000 pounds and a net worth $8million?
Michael Essien
Michael Kojo Essien was born on 3rd of December 1982. He is a Ghanaian footballer who plays for Milan and the Ghana national team. He is a midfielder who has often been touted as a box-to-box midfielder for his ability to exert energy in supporting offensive and defensive play and for his tough tackling style which has earned him the nickname “The Bison”. Essien can also play as a defender, both on the right of defence and in the centre.
Essien started his career playing for Liberty Professionals in his home country. In 2000, he moved to France joining Bastia. Essien spent three seasons at the club appearing in over 60 matches before joining league champions Olympique Lyonnais in 2003. At Lyon, Essien won back-to-back league titles in 2003–04 and 2004–05 and also played in the UEFA Champions League for the first time. During his five-year stint in France, he acquired French citizenship. In 2005, Essien signed with Chelsea for a fee of £24.4 million and, at the time of his signing, was the most expensive African footballer in history. At Chelsea, Essien helped the club win the Premier League in 2006 and 2010, as well as three FA Cups and one Football League Cup. In 2008, he appeared in the UEFA Champions League Final. He has won the Chelsea Goal of the season award twice, in the 2006–07 and 2008–09 seasons.
Essien is a Ghanaian international. At youth level, he represented his country at the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship and 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship with the latter team finishing as runner-up. Essien made his senior team debut in January 2002 and has represented his nation at three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, where Ghana reached the Round of 16. He is often referred to as the Bison for his tough tackling style, boundless energy and physical presence on the pitch. Essien was signed on with the sum of 4million pounds, gets a weekly salary of 60,000 pounds and a $22.7million?
Christopher Samba
He was born on 28th of March 1984 in Parisian suburb of Créteil and a professional footballer who plays as a defender for FC Dynamo Moscow in the Russian Premier League. Born in France, he plays for the Congo national team. Samba began his career with French Ligue 2 club Sedan. After only three appearances, he was signed by Berlin based club Hertha BSC of the German Bundesliga.Samba only made 20 appearances during his time in Germany and desired a move elsewhere. Struggling to break into the Hertha BSC first team[2] he was invited by Mark Hughes to undertake a five-day trial at Blackburn Rovers. In total for the German club in his three years there he made approximately 28 appearances in all competitions, and he also was involved in eight Euro cup matches. His sign on fee was 2million pounds and gets 35,000 weekly wages.
Kolo Touré?
Kolo Habib Touré was in Bouake on born 19th of March 1981. He is an Ivorian footballer who plays for Liverpool and the Ivory Coast national team as a central defender. He previously played for Manchester City and Arsenal, where he was a member of the famous ‘invincibles’ side of the 2003–04 season. He is the elder brother of Manchester City’s Yaya Touré and the late Ibrahim Touré, who died in June 2014.Touré joined Premier League team Arsenal in February 2002 from ASEC Mimosas for a fee of £150,000 after a short trial. His status as a full international meant Touré was able to secure a British work permit.
Touré did not make his debut for the first team until the next season, against Liverpool in the FA Community Shield in August 2002. Initially regarded as a utility player, he started his Arsenal career as a defensive midfielder as well as in right back. He scored his first Arsenal goal at Stamford Bridge in a 1–1 draw against Chelsea.[4] Arsenal failed to retain the Premiership crown that season, but Touré made a big step in his career nonetheless, winning the FA Cup as an unused substitute in the final.
At the start of the 2003–04 season, Wenger began using Touré as a central defender alongside Sol Campbell. He formed an effective partnership with Campbell and had a great season during which Arsenal were undefeated in the league, claiming the title. Having previously been a striker or attacking midfielder, he made a reputation for himself as being an attacking defender, although he only scored one goal and had one assist. He got a sign on fee of 3.2million pounds, gets a weekly wages of 50,000 pounds and a net worth of $10.3million
Seydou Keita?
He was born on January in Bamako, Mali 16,1980 and a Malian professional footballer who plays for Italian club A.S. Roma. A versatile midfielder, he can operate as both a central or defensive midfielder, and played most notably with Lens (five seasons) and Barcelona (four), winning 14 titles with the latter.Keita represented Malian national team since the age of 20, appearing with it at six Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, and also holds a French passport. Keita finished his football formation in France with Olympique de Marseille, joining the club at the age of 17. He played mainly for the reserve squad during his three-year spell.
Keita made his Ligue 1 debut for L’OM on 19 September 1999 in a 1–0 home win against Troyes AC, adding three games in the season‘s UEFA Champions League. In the summer of 2000, he left the club. He was signed on with a sum of 3 million pounds and a weekly wages of 40,000 pounds?
Frédéric Oumar Kanouté
Frederic Kanoute
This retired Malian professional footballer who played for several top-tier clubs within UEFA, enjoying his greatest success with La Liga side Sevilla FC. Kanouté was named the 2007 African Footballer of the Year, the first player born outside Africa to win the award. He was born on 2nd of September 1977.
Kanouté began his career with Lyon in France before moving to West Ham of the Premier League in 2000. After a spell at their London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, Kanouté moved to Spanish club Sevilla where he won two consecutive UEFA Cups in 2006 and 2007 in addition to various other European and domestic honours and remains the club’s highest-scoring foreign player. He joined Beijing Goan in June 2012.
Despite appearing 16 times for France U-21, Kanouté was a member of the Malian squad which reached the semi-finals of the 2004 African Cup of Nations and also featured in their selections for the tournament in 2006 and 2010. His international career ended in 2010 with a total of 39 caps and 23 goals. He was signed on with a sum of two million pounds and got 35,000 pounds weekly.
