Mo Salah: Most valuable African forward in Premier League

Mohammed Salah is unarguably the most prolific footballer among the top five African forwards playing in the Premier League (PL) in the last 10 years based on salary per goal.

Salah’s salary per goal, i.e. total income earned from the league divided by his goals comes to £378,000 and makes him the most valuable among the five Africans playing in the league since 2014. The Egyptian forward who is in his eighth season in the PL — three seasons with Chelsea and five with Liverpool — has scored 107 goals in 168 appearances and has earned a total of £40 million.

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A record-breaking treble against Manchester United on October 24, 2021, set off a debate about the most valuable African player in the top-flight football league.

“I have never seen anything like it. Salah has to be the best winger the league has ever seen and the best player in the world at the moment and no one is doing it like him,” Pep Guardiola, Manchester City manager, affirmed.

Sadio Mane, his teammate, is the second most valuable player. Mane who is from Senegal and also in his eighth season — two seasons with Southampton and six with Liverpool — has scored 101 goals in 239 appearances in the PL. With a total income of £53.4m, his salary per goal is £582,000.

Pierre-Emerick (Gabon), Riyad Mahrez (Algeria), and Wilfried Zaha (Cote d’Ivoire) are the other three contenders in the elite league. Aubameyang and Mahrez have 68 goals each from 123, 234 appearances, respectively, while Zaha has netted 50 goals in 254 games.

The price of the goal

If the African forwards in the PL are to be valued by salary per goal, the Egyptian forward would be the best bargain.

Measuring the performance of the footballers based on salary per goal means the goals Mo Salah scored for Chelsea and Liverpool in his eight seasons in the PL have come at a bargain for the clubs.

Sadio Mane who earns the most among the five has scored 101 goals, six behind Salah though he spent the same number of seasons in the league. He trails Salah’s haul by six goals in the list with £53.4 million and has scored 101 goals so far in his eight seasons in the PL, costing the clubs £528,200 per goal.

However, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Riyad Mahrez, and Wilfried Zaha have so far in the PL scored goals costing their respective clubs £604,100, £599,300, and £639,600. In other words, Mo Salah is more productive compared with the rest of his African counterparts in the PL, making him the most valuable African player in the top-flight league.

Mo Salah versus Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy

Harry Kane is in his 10th season and has scored 167 goals in 254 appearances, costing the club £47.174 million with a salary per goal of £282,500. Jamie Vardy, in his eighth season, has 125 goals in 255 appearances, which puts his goal per salary at £307,800.

Based on this metric, Mo Salah ranks among the most valuable players of Africa and non-African in the league who have yielded value for money for every goal scored.

The salaries of the players are established regarding the salaries delivered monthly by the clubs to the players without consideration for a sponsorship, advert revenues, and special bonuses. Price is established for all seasons played at the top flight, according to premierleague.com/players and salarysport.com.