Salah, Mane, Mendy: The most valuable African XI in world football

Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane are firmly in the Ballon d’Or hunt.

With France Football having adjusted the rules for their iconic prize, the golden football will now garland the best-performing player of the 2021/22 campaign as opposed to 2022 as a whole.

In other words, we’re just a few weeks and games away from having an exhaustive record of each player’s candidacy to be crowned the best male footballer in the world.

And there’s a good chance that an African player will be getting their hands on the prize with both Salah and Mane amongst the favourites to lift the Ballon d’Or trophy above their heads.

While Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski might have something to say about that, the Liverpool duo are most certainly in the hunt to win Africa’s second Ballon d’Or crown.

It’s staggering to think that for all the remarkable talents to have played for an African national team that George Weah remains the only recipient from the continent having bagged the 1995 prize.

Yet, with Mane having won the Africa Cup of Nations and Liverpool potentially eyeing up an unprecedented quadruple, don’t be surprised if Weah no longer stands alone in the history books.

However, Salah and Mane aren’t the only African players to have shone this season because you don’t have to be in Ballon d’Or contention to have enjoyed an impressive run of form.

From the rising star of Edmond Tapsoba to the midfield magnificence of Franck Kessie, it takes little to no effort at all to build a stunning XI based purely upon players hailing from Africa.

TheAnd it just so happens that many of these top players command eye-watering transfer fees with any potential sale for superstars like Salah and Mane always destined to burn holes in wallets.

So, bearing