On Apr. 16, Senegal talisman Sadio Mané struck twice in a thrilling match against Manchester City, to send Liverpool into the FA Cup final against Chelsea.

Mané’s spectacular performance for The Reds, came slightly over a month after the Senegalese forward converted a decisive penalty against Egypt to earn his west African nation its first Africa Cup of Nations title.

The audit firm’s figures show there are over 500 African footballers in European leagues. The number of players playing abroad is far higher if other, non-European leagues, like the Middle East and China, are factored in.

West Africa dominates in terms of Africans playing in European football leagues

“African footballers are contracted by these clubs’ first teams in the 11 leagues, which constitutes approximately 6% of their total player base. Unsurprisingly, most of them come from West-African countries,” reads the November 2021 report dubbed “The African Power in Europe” in part.

Others are Ivory Coast (50), Ghana (46), Algeria (32), Mali (32), Cameroon ((28), DR Congo (23) and Guinea (13), with west African states dominating the chart.

After the recently-concluded AFCON, more African players who featured in the tournament are expected to be signed by clubs overseas.

In order to assess the significance of African footballers in Europe, KPMG looked at 11 prominent top tier leagues and their African nationals.

“It is important to note that the primary nationality was the key criteria; players of African origin who play for non-African national adult teams are excluded from the analysis,” it said.

While League 1 employs more African players, it pales by comparison when it comes to the average market value of African players in the English Premier League (EPL.)

Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané bring up the average value of African footballers in the English Premier League

KPMG argues this is because of Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané being on top of the list of the most valuable players, giving a boost to the average value of African footballers in the English top tier.

“With Salah and Mané in their ranks, it is unsurprising that Liverpool is also the club with the highest total squad value attributed to African players, with Guinean midfielder Naby Keita and Cameroon defender Joel Matip also part of the team.”

Interestingly, KPMG notes that it is not uncommon that most African players often choose to represent an African nation due to family roots without ever playing in the professional league of that country.

“Koulibaly actually played for the France national under-20 team before ultimately deciding that he would play for Senegal from 2015 onwards—today he is the captain of the team. Similarly, Liverpool’s Joel Matip was born in Germany and started his career there with FC Schalke 04, before opting to play international football for Cameroon.”

Africa offers a vibrant and diverse pool of talent that cuts across sporting disciplines.

The original version of this story was republished with the permission of bird, a story agency under Africa No Filter.