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Robson Sharuko-Senior Sports Editor
AS the English Premiership begins to induct legends into their Hall of Fame, some interesting statistics are beginning to emerge.
Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry were the first to be handed the honour this week.
Englishman Shearer, who starred for Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, remains the Premiership’s all-time highest goal-scorer, with 260 goals, across 14 seasons.
He was the Golden Boot winner, on three occasions, and is the only player to score more than 100 league goals, for two different clubs, in the Premiership.
Frenchman Henry won the Golden Boot award a record four times, scoring a 175 league goals for Arsenal, which remains a club record, while helping them to two Premiership titles.
He is the Gunners’ all-time record goal-scorer, with 228 goals, in all competitions.
“Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry are two world-class players who lit up the Premier League throughout their time in the competition,” said Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters.
“Both players were capable of scoring every kind of goal, including some of the best we have ever seen.
“Shearer’s record 260 Premier League goals puts him at the top of a long list of exceptional goalscorers. The fact that record remains unchallenged today, 15 years since his retirement, goes to show what an achievement it was.
“Henry broke individual and team records during eight seasons with Arsenal when he became a footballing icon.
“He was a talisman in the “Invincibles” team and his four Premier League Golden Boots during a five-year period reflect the impact he had.”
The next batch of six inductees will be picked from a 23-man short-list, which features the likes of Peter Schmeichel, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard Paul Scholes, John Terry and Nemanja Vidic.
A public vote will decide the next six inductees to be unveiled on May 9.
The 23-man short-list also features one African legend, Didier Drogba, who transformed himself into an icon of both the Premiership, and the game, during his time at Chelsea.
Drogba helped the Blues win four Premiership titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and the UEFA Champions League.
Two hundred and forty nine African footballers have featured in the English Premiership, since Peter Ndlovu started the adventure for players from this continent, in August 1992.
And, the flood of statistics, which have been provided by the Premiership, to help the fans with the voting process, makes some interesting reading.
Drogba destroyed defences in the league, on his way to becoming the fourth highest goal-scorer in Chelsea history, scoring three league hat-tricks, during his spell with the Blues.
They came in an 8-0 massacre of Wigan Athletic, a 6-0 thrashing of West Bromwich Albion and a 4-0 comprehensive win over Watford.
But, for all his goal-scoring brilliance, the great Ivorian never scored a league hat-trick, for Chelsea, away from Stamford Bridge.
Instead, only a small elite club of just 10 African players have managed that feat, scoring a league hat-trick, away from home, in the English Premiership.
That club features former Zimbabwe captain, Peter Ndlovu, whose historic hat-trick at Anfield on March 14, 1995, powered Coventry City to an impressive 3-2 victory over Liverpool.
It marked the first time a visiting player scored a hat-trick, at Anfield, in a league match, since 1961.
The former Warriors skipper also remains the only visiting African player to enjoy the honour of scoring a league hat-trick, at the home of Liverpool, in the era of the English Premiership.
His three goals came just two years after Nigerian international forward, Efan Ekoku, became the first African player to score a hat-trick, in the Premiership.
Now, a commentator for Sky Sports, Ekoku buried himself in a blaze of glory on September 25, 1993, when he scored a hat-trick at Goodison Park.
His goals powered Norwich to a 5-1 away destruction of Everton.
This means that the first two hat-tricks, by African players in the Premiership, were both scored in the city of Liverpool, within a range of about two kilometres, which separate Anfield and Goodison Park.
Legendary Ghanaian forward, Tony Yeboah, was the third African player, to score a hat-trick, away from home, in the Premiership, when he guided Leeds United to a 4-2 victory over Wimbledon on September 13, 1995.
Four years would pass, before another African player scored a Premiership hat-trick, on the road, with Nigerian legend, Nwankwo Kanu, joining the fray in Arsenal’s 3-2 win over Chelsea, at Stamford Bridge. Emmanuel Adebayor joined the club, on September 13, 2008, when Arsenal thrashed Blackburn 4-0, at Ewood Road, before Demba Ba scored all three goals, for Newcastle United, in a 3-1 away win over Stoke City, on October 31, 2011.
Former Nigerian international forward, Peter Odemwingie, was the next, with his hat-trick in West Bromwich Albion’s 5-1 thrashing of Wolves, on February 12, 2012.
Congolese forward, Yannick Bolaise, followed suit, in Crystal Palace’s defeat of Sunderland, on April 11, 2015.
Algerian forward Riyad Mahrez, who scored a hat-trick in Leicester City’s 3-0 away win over Swansea, on December 5, 2015, and Mohamed Salah, whose away hat-trick came in Liverpool’s 4-0 thrashing of Bournemouth, on December 8, 2018, complete that list of African stars.
They also have one thing in common, when it comes to the away games, in which they have scored a hat-trick.
None of them took the match ball home, after his hat-trick on foreign turf, in a losing cause for his team.
Call them lucky charms, if you want.
But, as the Premiership goes down memory lane, to remember the heroes who illuminated its landscape, it’s difficult to ignore the huge contribution which these African stars have given to the league.
Online Reporter