After equalling Sergio Aguero’s Premier League output at the weekend, Mohamed Salah has now broken Didier Drogba’s long-standing Champions League record.
With his penalty in the 2-1 victory over Wolves, Salah drew level with Aguero for goal involvements for a single club in the Premier League era – joint-sixth in history.
The Egyptian then found the back of the net in Wednesday night’s 2-0 win at home to Bologna in the Champions League.
In doing so, Salah overtook Drogba as the highest-scoring African player in the history of the Champions League, with 45 goals in the tournament proper.
The top 10 most prolific African players in the Champions League are:
- 1. Mohamed Salah – 45 goals in 81 games
- 2. Didier Drogba – 44 goals in 92 games
- 3. Samuel Eto’o – 30 goals in 78 games
- 4. Sadio Mane – 27 goals in 64 games
- 5. Riyad Mahrez – 20 goals in 55 games
- 6. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 17 goals in 38 games
- 7. Seydou Doumbia – 15 goals in 31 games
- 8. Vincent Aboubakar – 14 goals in 23 games
- 9. Sebastien Haller – 12 goals in 14 games
- 10. George Weah – 11 goals in 16 games
In leapfrogging Drogba, Salah also became the 15th-highest goalscorer in the history of the European Cup and 13th-highest since the Champions League began in 1992.
He is one goal away from equalling Eusebio and Filippo Inzaghi, while five more goals would see him break into the all-time top 10 and draw level with Thierry Henry.
Cristiano Ronaldo (140) holds the record for the most goals in European Cup history, with Lionel Messi (129) and Robert Lewandowski (96) making up the rest of the top three.
While it may be a tough feat for Salah to challenge Lewandowski at this stage of his career, it is not out of the realms of possibility that he could overtake Raul (71) as the fifth-highest scorer.
Beyond Barcelona striker Lewandowski, Bayern Munich’s Thomas Muller (54) and Real Madrid‘s Kylian Mbappe (49) are the only other players active in the Champions League with more goals than Salah.
Salah’s goal against Bologna also saw him become the first Liverpool player to net in five consecutive Champions League games at Anfield.
Having laid on Alexis Mac Allister‘s opener, he also became the first player to both score and assist in nine different Champions League games for an English club.
