An XI of top footballers of African descent

Forwards

Benzema chose to play for France but he was ousted from the team two years ago

Karim Benzema:

Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema was born to French nationals of Algerian descent. His grandfather was an Algerian who migrated to Lyon in 1950s and this made Benzema eligible to play for Algeria just like his manager Zinedine Zidane.

He was approached by Algeria to play for them internationally in 2006 but he turned down the offer to play for France which he did a year later. He has been capped 81 times scoring 27 goals but hasn’t played for France since 2015 following allegations of blackmailing his national teammate Mathieu Valbuena.

Romelu Lukaku

Lukaku was born in Belgium to Congolese parents. His father was a professional footballer who was capped internationally by the country formerly known as Zaire.

Aged just 24, he has already scored 24 goals for Belgium and just needs 7 more goals to become the country’s all time leading goalscorer.

The team will line up in a 4-3-1-2 Diamond formation