Yakubu Aiyegbeni ranked 5th in Premier League´s leading non-European goalscorers
Sergio Aguero’s 124th Premier League goal arrived on Saturday against Liverpool and makes him the competition’s highest scoring non-European of all time.
The Argentina international has been at Manchester City since 2011 and has surged up the goal charts in an astonishing career in England.
Aguero has overtaken a number of prolific players born away from the league’s home continent to secure his place at the top.
We take a look at the top five non-European goalscorers in the Premier League.
Record breaker… #mancity pic.twitter.com/jFYbdo2PZL
— Manchester City (@ManCity) September 9, 2017
5. Yakubu (Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Everton, Blackburn Rovers) – 95
Nigeria international Yakubu initially arrived in the Premier League with Portsmouth in 2003, having fired the club to promotion during a loan spell, and his first season in the top flight was a roaring success as he scored 16 times.
Far from a one-season wonder, though, the forward hit double-figures again in each of the next four campaigns – with Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Everton – before injury slowed his scoring at Goodison Park in 2008-09.
However, after a couple of tricky seasons, Yakubu then moved on to Blackburn Rovers and scored 17 goals in 2011-12 – his career high – as the club were relegated.
4. Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham, Crystal Palace) – 97
Four months before reaching the 2006 Champions League final, Arsenal brought Adebayor in from Monaco and the Togo international scored four Premier League goals before the end of his first season.
A return of 24 goals in 2007-08 was Adebayor’s best for Arsene Wenger’s side, but he became public enemy number one at Emirates Stadium after opting to join Manchester City, infamously running the length of the Etihad Stadium pitch to celebrate in front of his former fans after a September 2009 strike.
Adebayor’s standing among Arsenal fans sunk even lower when he joined rivals Tottenham – after a successful 17-goal loan spell – but his influence waned at White Hart Lane and he last converted in the Premier League for Crystal Palace in 2016.
3. Didier Drogba (Chelsea) – 104
Signed from Marseille in Jose Mourinho’s first transfer window in the Premier League in 2004, Drogba won four titles in two spells at Chelsea.
After 10 goals in his first season and 12 in his second, Ivory Coast icon Drogba claimed the Golden Boot with a haul of 20 in 2006-07, repeating the feat with 29 in 2009-10.
Departing at the age of 34 in 2012, he was back two years later to add a further four goals to his Premier League tally and claim a fourth winners’ medal.
2. Dwight Yorke (Aston Villa, Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City, Sunderland) – 123
The man Aguero has surpassed is Trinidad and Tobago legend Dwight Yorke, a key member of Manchester United’s 1998-99 treble-winning squad as his 18 goals topped the Premier League scoring charts.
He had already established himself in the top flight with Aston Villa, becoming one of the Premier League’s first foreign stars and scoring 17 goals in consecutive seasons between 1995 and 1997.
Yorke’s clinical touch deserted him somewhat in his final season at United, though, and he moved on to score for Blackburn, Birmingham City and Sunderland without enjoying the same success.
1. Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) – 124
City had not been champions of England since 1968 when Aguero arrived in 2011; that they then won the Premier League in two of his first three seasons was no coincidence.
Aguero may have now scored 124 Premier League goals, but he is still largely remembered for one – his last-ditch strike on the final day of the 2011-12 season that stole the title away from rivals United in scarcely imaginable circumstances.
The Argentinian played a crucial role in the 2013-14 triumph, too, before winning the Golden Boot in the following campaign with 26 goals. His form has not let up since.
