For the first time in nine years, a Premier League matchday will kick off without Mohamed Salah on a team sheet.
The 34-year-old Egyptian left Anfield on a free transfer at the end of a subdued final season and signed a two-year deal with Trabzonspor on 6 August, closing a Liverpool era that produced 257 goals in 441 appearances, two league titles, a Champions League and four Premier League Golden Boots.
BBC Sport has posed the obvious question as the 2026-27 season opens on Friday 21 August: who is the Premier League’s next African king?
The short answer is that no one has claimed the seat.
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Semenyo took Yaya Touré’s shirt at City
Antoine Semenyo comes closest in raw commercial terms. The Ghana forward joined Manchester City from Bournemouth on 9 January in a £65m deal, a Bournemouth club-record sale, and picked up the No.42 shirt once worn by Yaya Touré at the Etihad. He had 10 Premier League goals and three assists for Bournemouth in the first half of last season before the switch.
In his first Manchester City interview, the 26-year-old set out what he had signed up for.
“I have watched City over the last decade under Pep Guardiola, and they have been the dominant team in the Premier League as well as achieving amazing things in the Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup,” Semenyo said.
Half a season into life at the Etihad is a very different platform from Salah’s era-defining Liverpool runs. But of every African name in the league, his arrival was the loudest.
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Mbeumo led Africa’s Premier League scorers
Bryan Mbeumo has been the more productive newcomer. The Cameroon international arrived at Manchester United from Brentford last summer and ended 2025-26 on 12 goals in all competitions, joint top scorer at Old Trafford with fellow summer signing Benjamin Sesko.
He was named United’s Player of the Month for August after scoring in his first weeks in a red shirt, and picked up a first Premier League Player of the Month award in October. That output was the highest of any African forward in the league last season, and lifted him past Kudus and Diallo in the pecking order of African forwards who have delivered in an English shirt.
Kudus’s first Tottenham season was quiet
Mohammed Kudus’s opening Tottenham campaign was a modest one after his summer 2025 move from West Ham. The Ghana forward finished with two goals and five assists in Premier League play, hampered by injury and inconsistency, and now enters year two under fresh pressure to convert his talent into numbers.
Amad Diallo’s picture at Manchester United is broadly similar. The Ivorian, tied to Old Trafford on a new long-term contract, added two goals and three assists in 32 league appearances in a rebuilding season for United. At Everton, Senegal’s Iliman Ndiaye started every one of his 32 Premier League matches and finished with six goals and three assists, the most consistent output outside the top group.
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Salah’s Premier League numbers, 191 Premier League goals and the highest of any African player in league history, sit apart from all of them. The next holder of “Africa’s Premier League king”, if one is to be crowned, will not be crowned in August.
The 2026-27 season opens at 8pm local time on Friday when Arsenal host newly promoted Coventry City at the Emirates.
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