Mikel named 3rd most influential African in EPL

John Obi Mikel is the third most influential African player in Premier League history, a study has shown.

According to football betting experts at The History of African Success, only the Premier League exploits of Ivorians Kolo Toure and Didier Drogba are superior to those of the former Chelsea midfielder.

To arrive at this result, the exclusive ‘influence’ score (which awards points for appearances, match wins and Premier League titles, while deducting points for match losses of each of the players were taken into consideration.

Former Arsenal player Kolo Toure earned a total of 925 points to come top, while former Chelsea striker Drogba garnered 760 points to place second. Mikel’s points were 665.

Two other Nigerian players made the all-time top ten of the most influential Africans in the Premier League. While former Arsenal player Nwankwo Kanu is sixth with 537 points, former Everton striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni is eighth with 381 points.

Other players in the top ten are Yaya Toure (636 points); Emmanuel Adebayor (557); Michael Essien (495); Victor Wanyama (318) and Sadio Mane (269).

Ivory Coast are the country whose players have accounted for the most goals among other African coutries in the Premier League, followed by Nigeria. Togo are third. Ghana and Senegal make up the list of the top five countries in this category.

Of the total 194 goals scored by Ivorian players, Drogba accounts for 104, while Yakubu Aiyegbeni, with 95 goals, is highest goal scorer among all the Nigerians who have scored 184 in total.

One player – Emmanuel Adebayor – accounts for all the goals by Togo in the Premier League. Ghanaian players have scored 51 in all with Anthony Yeboah emerging the highest scorer. The former Leeds United striker scored 24 goals out of this number. Senegalese players have played 45 goals with Sadio Mane accounting for 43.

However, Nigeria are the biggest exporters of Premier League talent going by the shortlist of players. Out of the total 24 players on the short list, six are are Nigerians and these are Nwankwo Kanu, Austin Okocha, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, John Obi Mikel, Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho.

All the players taken into consideration for honours in all the categories were of clear African heritage and have a minimum of 30 club appearances.