Top 10 Most Expensive African Footballers of All Time

Africans has contributed immensely to football worldwide, There's hardly any league you'll look into and you wouldn't find one or two Africa players in the country. The talent and quality of these players in the game have placed them among the most valuable players in the world.

These are the 10 most expensive African football players of all time.

10) Obafemi Martins (Rubin Kazan) - €17 Million

The weapon of mass destruction as he's fondly called has not been very successful over 14 years playing international football and can only boast of few awards despite playing in 6 different leagues, he only has a league title to his name and that was when he was at Inter Milan.

After a fairly productive spells at Internazionale, he was sold to Newcastle in the 2006/2007 session for €15 million, he signed a 5years contract, but after spending three years at the club, he was sold. Martins was sold because Newcastle were relegated. He was sold for €13 million to Wolfsburg in 2010.

During his three-year spell on Tyneside, Martins amassed 35 goals in all competitions from 104 games.

Wolfsburg then went on to sell him for €17 million to reigning Russian Premier League champions Rubin Kazan.

Martins played 35 times for the Russian side however, spending time on loan at Birmingham where he scored the winning goal in the League Cup final but again suffered the ignominy of relegation from the Premier League again.

He now plays for the Seattle Sounders in the MLS following a €4-million transfer from Levante.

9) Jay-Jay Okocha (Paris Saint-Germain) – €20 Million

Okocha was signed by Paris St-Germain following a prolific spell at Fenerbahce in which he scored 30 goals in 60 games from midfield, many of the goals coming from direct free kicks, which became something of a trademark for him at the club. The Nigerian became a fans favourite in the French capital and acted as a mentor to a young Ronaldinho before he became a global superstar. Okocha left PSG after the 2002 World Cup and signed for Premier League Bolton.

Okocha never won any league title with any of the seven clubs he played for; also he never won the African Player of Year award, becoming arguably the best player never to win the award despite coming third twice in 2003 and 2004 and second on one occasion 1998. He did however win the inaugural BBC African Footballer of the Year and the successive one, becoming the only player to retain the award and win it more than once. In 2004 he was listed in football legend Pelé's FIFA 100 (a list of the greatest 125 living players of all time). In 2007 he was voted number 12 on the greatest African footballers of the past 50 years list, on a poll conducted by CAF to coincide with their 50th anniversary.

8) Alex Song (Barcelona) – €21 Million

Song signed for Barcelona following an impressive season for Arsenal in the Premier League, He signed a five-year contract worth €5-million a year. He has failed to establish himself at the Camp Nou though and seems set to depart permanently following a loan spell at West Ham last season but, if he's to leave the Nou Camp, he would have to take a pay cut if he were to sign for West Ham. The Cameroonian will almost certainly leave the Nou Camp this summer.

Amazingly, Song has only won one trophy during his career, the 2012-13 La Liga title with Barcelona, although he will surely add to that being only 27 years old.

7) Medhi Benatia (Bayern Munich) – €26 million

He began his career at Marseille, spending his time loaned out to Tours and Lorient before joining Clermont in 2008. Two years later he joined Udinese, spending three seasons there before transferring to Roma.

After helping them finish as Serie A runners-up in his only campaign there, he was signed by Bayern for €26 million, He was vital at the heart of the Bayern defence as they defended their Bundesliga title and currently earns €4-million a year having signed a five year contract last summer.

 6) Samuel Eto’o (Anzhi Makhachkala) – €28 Million

The deal that took Eto’o to Anzhi saw him not only become one of the most expensive African footballers of all time, but saw him become one of the best paid players in the game. The Cameroonian signed a three-year deal worth €20-million a year, which made him the highest paid player in the world at the time. Eto’o had spent only two years at his previous club, Internazionale, but had won the treble in his first season, including the Champions League. The season before his transfer to Anzhi had also seen him score 37 goals, his record haul in a season. He enjoyed two relatively productive seasons with the Russian team before their billionaire owner, Suleiman Kerimov, drastically cut the amount he was willing to spend on the team. Since then Eto’o has played for Chelsea, Everton and Sampdoria, but is remembered more for his spells with Internazionale and Barcelona.

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. 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.

5) Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City) – €28.95 Million

Adebayor has been off the scene for quite a while now, and currently he's a free agent as he has been released by Tottenham after failing to settle down after some family issues.  

Adebayor had been one of the stars of the Arsenal team before he signed for Manchester City. Following a prolific season in 2008, in which the Togolese star scored 30 goals in all competitions and he earned his place in the PFA Team of the Year. Adebayor did not find the same form the following season, and Arsenal decided to sell him to Manchester City. The Togolese international earned £180,000 a week during his time at Manchester City, but failed to establish himself during his two years at the club and spent a spell on loan at Real Madrid. He later went on a season-long loan at Tottenham, finishing the season as their top scorer, which saw the North London club agree a deal for the striker worth just £5-million. Adebayor was still earning £80,000 a week from City until the end of this season as part of the deal that saw him head to the capital.

4) Wilfried Bony (Manchester City) €32.6 Million

Bony had been prolific for the Welsh club since joining them from Vitesse in 2013, scoring 34 goals in 73 games in all competitions. He had been chased by a number of Premier League teams before joining the Swans following a season for Vitesse in 2013 that had seen him named Eredivisie Player of the Year and top scorer. When transfers are counted in Pound Sterling rather than Euros, Bony could become the most expensive African player in history as add-ons could see his transfer from Swansea rise from £25-million to £28-million. If his time at the club continues as it has started however, he is unlikely to activate those clauses.

3) Yaya Touré (Manchester City) €33.8 Million

Toure has played in a number of European leagues throughout his career; however he first came to prominence playing in France with AS Monaco. His performances there attracted the interest of Barcelona, who signed him from the Ligue 1 club for €10-million in 2007. During his time at the Catalan club he won seven trophies, with six being claimed during 2009. Toure lost his place in the Barcelona first team following Pep Guardiola as manager, resulting in the announcement he would leave the club at the conclusion of the 2010 season. Manchester City won the fight to sign Toure following his departure from the Camp Nou and he has been integral to the 2012 and 2014 Premier League champions since. The Ivorian international currently earns more than £200,000 a week, however following a disappointing season with Manchester City he has been linked with a move away from the club to Internazionale where his former City manager, Roberto Mancini, currently works.

2) Didier Drogba (Chelsea) – €35.97 Million

Didier Drogba’s career could have been incredibly different but for West Ham’s relegation from the Premier League in 2003. The East London club had agreed a fee with Guingamp to sign Drogba if they remained in the Premier League. Instead the Ivorian remained in France for two more seasons and excelled in the Ligue 1, joining mega-rich Chelsea from Marseille rather than West Ham from Guingamp. Though Drogba was not prolific during his early years at Stamford Bridge, he soon became indispensable to the team. His crowning moment came during his final appearance during his first stay at the club, scoring the equaliser and winning penalty in the shootout as Chelsea beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final. This was followed by a spell in China with Shanghai Shenhua, where Drogba earned a rumoured £200,000 a week, and a season at Turkish giants, Galatasaray, before returning to Chelsea last summer. The Ivorian spent much of this season acting as back-up for Diego Costa, and announced before the last game of the season that he planned to leave the club for a second time for one more year of first team football. He has since been linked with a number of sides in the MLS.

1) Michael Essien (Chelsea) – €38 Million

Top of our list is one time winner of the BBC African Player of the Year award and the African footballer of the year. The Ghanaian became the most expensive African footballer of all time when Jose Mourinho signed him for Chelsea from Olympique Lyonnais in the summer of 2005. Essien had finished the previous season as the winner of Ligue 1 Player of the Year, which goes some way to explaining the size of the fee Chelsea were willing to pay. The Ghanaian’s time at Chelsea was very successful, winning the Premier League twice, FA Cup four times and Champions League, as well as being named Chelsea Player of the Year in 2007. The latter period of his time in the Premier League saw him struggle with injury and he spent the 2013 season on loan at Real Madrid, linking up again with Jose Mourinho.

NOTE: John Obi Mikel is supposed to be on the list but his transfer saga made us not add his name because, he was initially bought for €7million but after the settlement and out of court, Chelsea later paid €22.5million, some of the money went to his former club, Lyon Oslo and Manchester United.