2. Mohamed Salah
To think that Mohamed Salah was still playing for domestic side Al Mokawloon as at 2012 shows how meteoric his rise has been. He has within a short period won tons of individual plaudits that many players can only dream of.
While his first coming to English football with Chelsea was nothing to write home about, his second coming, this time with Liverpool has catapulted him to immense stardom, currently regarded as one of the best players in world football. In his debut season, he broke the league’s scoring record for a 38 game season, scoring 32 goals in 36 league games ending the season as the league’s Player of the Year, as well as coming third in the FIFA Player of the Year award.
The next season, he finished as joint top scorer again and won the Champions League at the second time of asking, scoring 10 goals in the competition; a first for an African player. A genuine idol in his home country, he has played 67 times for the Pharaohs, scoring 41 goals and won the African Player of the Year in 2018 and 2019.