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#3 Sadio Mane (Senegal & Liverpool)
The Champions League is blessed to have seen some fine wingers in the recent past and Sadio Mane is one of them. The Senegalese forward joined Liverpool from Southampton in 2016.
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Since then, Mane has been a menace for the teams in the Premier League. His form with the Reds has been incredible as he continues to be a vital player for Liverpool. The dynamic forward won the Champions League with them in the 2018-19 season.
He had an instrumental role in achieving that, scoring four goals and registering one assist in the tournament. Mane also went on to win the 2021 AFCON recently and was named the Player of the Tournament.
#2 Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast & Barcelona)
The magic of Yaya Toure in midfield was immense in his football career. The Ivorian joined Barcelona from Monaco in the summer of 2007.
With his strong physique, amazing passing and creative abilities, Toure was a fantastic box-to-box midfielder for the Catalan club. Under the management of Pep Guardiola, he went on to win the 2008-09 Champions League, winning the Treble in the process.
At the national level, Toure was instrumental in helping Ivory Coast win the AFCON in 2015. He was named in the Team of the Tournament and also went on to win the BBC African Footballer of the Year award that year.
#1 Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon & Barcelona/Inter Milan)
Regarded as one of the best African players ever, Samuel Eto'o played for a number of top European clubs. Some of the finest moments of his football career came at Barcelona.
The Cameroon forward is the only player on this list to have won the Champions League thrice. He won the tournament twice with Barcelona and once while playing for Inter Milan. Amazingly, Eto'o has won two European continental trebles with these two clubs, a feat very difficult to achieve.
The former Barcelona attacker has played in six AFCON tournaments in his career. With 18 goals to his name in AFCON, he is the all-time leading goal scorer in the history of the competition.
Eto'o has won the AFCON twice in his career, in 2000 and 2002. He remains the only player on this list to do so. It comes as no surprise why the Cameroonian is so highly rated given that he has won the Champions League thrice and the AFCON twice.
