Eight years on: Arsenal’s African stars revisited

Reader Charles Paul looks back at the African players who have represented Arsenal over the years and asks which one stands out as your favourite.

I was having a deeper look at the top clubs’ squads this season when I suddenly noticed something that surprised me: Arsenal do not currently have a senior player representing an African nation.

The last was Thomas Partey, who left Arsenal in 2025 after making 167 appearances for the club.

This actually hasn’t happened in all the years I have watched Arsenal play.

Back in 2018, Dan Smith ranked the African players who had represented Arsenal, which created plenty of debate among Just Arsenal readers.

Eight years later, I thought it would be interesting to look at the list again, including those who have represented Arsenal since.

Arsenal’s African players by appearances

I’ll start with the highest number of Arsenal appearances:

Kolo Toure – 326
Lauren – 241
Emmanuel Eboue – 214
Alex Song – 204
Nwankwo Kanu – 198
Thomas Partey – 167
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 163
Mohamed Elneny – 161
Alex Iwobi – 149
Emmanuel Adebayor – 142
Nicolas Pepe – 112
Marouane Chamakh – 67
Gervinho – 63
Christopher Wreh – 46
Armand Traore – 32
Quincy Owusu-Abeyie – 23
Emmanuel Frimpong – 16
Kaba Diawara – 15
Chuba Akpom – 12
Ismael Bennacer – 1

It is quite a collection when you see all those names together.

Who was your favourite Arsenal African player?

Who was your favourite ever player from the list?

Lauren, Nwankwo Kanu, Kolo Toure, Partey and Song for me.

Then there’s the next cluster of Aubameyang, Eboue and Adebayor – although I still dislike Adebayor for how he ran the full length of the pitch to celebrate after scoring against us!

Elneny was such a down-to-earth player and never let us down whenever he was called upon.

There have been so many different personalities and players across the years who made their mark at Arsenal.

Charles Paul

So, Gooners, who is your favourite from the list and why? Is there one Arsenal African star who immediately stands above the rest for you?

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