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Senegal will be heading to Qatar in November to take part in their third FIFA World Cup. They are the current Africa Cup of Nations champions, and their best finish at the World Cup came in 2002 when they reached the quarter-finals.
In 2018 they failed to get out of the group stage, but successive qualifications for the tournament in itself is a success for the country.
This time around, they have a more balanced team with players like Edouard Mendy, Kalidou Koulibaly, Ismaila Sarr, and others.
The country also has a rich history of goalscorers, and mentioned below are the top three goalscorers to have played for the Lions of Teranga. These players have been brilliant strikers at different points in their careers.
#3 Moussa Sow - 18 goals
Moussa Sow made 49 appearances for Senegal over the course of his career, scoring 18 goals. He also won the Ligue 1 title with LOSC Lille in 2011. That season, Sow was also the top scorer in the league, playing alongside players like Eden Hazard and Gervinho.
Since 2012 Sow has spent time switching teams between Turkey and the Middle East. He managed to win the Süper Lig with Fenerbahce in 2014.
Sow retired from international football in 2018 but managed to make the national squad for the 2018 World Cup. He scored goals in multiple editions of the Africa Cup of Nations but was not part of the trophy-winning national side.
Sow is still an active player at club level playing for lower-league teams in Turkey. Overall he had a good career, and his time at Lille and qualification with Senegal in 2018 would have been great achievements.
#2 Mamadou Niang - 18 goals
Mamadou Niang made 41 appearances for Senegal during his career and scored 18 goals.
He won the Ligue 1 title with Marseille in 2010. Niang also finished as the top scorer in Ligue 1 that season and spent five years at Marseille. He won the now-defunct UEFA Intertoto Cup twice, once with Troyes and once with Marseille, to round off a good career.
Like others, he played for Turkish and Middle Eastern clubs in his twilight years. He turned up for Fenerbahce and Al-Sadd near the end of his career.
His crowning achievement with his country was to finish fourth in the AFCON 2006. Niang was a good striker and made the Ligue 1 Team of the Year on a couple of occasions (2007-08 and 2009-10).
A graduate of the famous Le Havre academy in France, he could have done more for his nation, but had a good club career.
#1 Sadio Mané - 33 goals (Senegal's top scorer)
Sadio Mané has made 92 appearances for Senegal, scoring 33 goals, and is their best player ever by all accounts.
He ended Senegal's trophy drought by scoring the winning penalty earlier in the year to win the Africa Cup of Nations. He began his career at French club FC Metz before he was signed by Red Bull Salzburg. At Salzburg, he won the Austrian Bundesliga and was signed by Southampton in 2014.
After a very good two seasons at Southampton under Mauricio Pochettino, Liverpool bought Mané in 2016, and he became a pivotal player under Jurgen Klopp.
At Liverpool, Mané won it all and left in June for Bayern Munich as one of the club’s greatest players. He won the Premier League title as well as the Champions League during his stint with the Reds.
He is an icon for his country and does plenty of charity work within the African nation.
Mané should continue to have a brilliant career with Senegal and Bayern Munich.
