Fecafoot Vincent Aboubakar emerges 2023 top goal scorer: AFCON

Cameroon: Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has recently released list of Top Scorers. According to the recently revealed list by AFCON the highest goal scorer is FECAFOOT team captain Vincent Aboubakar.

The player took the Golden Boot by firing eight goals at the 2021 tournament.

The 31-year-old Vincent Aboubakar from Garoua scored in all three group games with two goals in both the wins against Burkina Faso and Ethiopia before scoring his fifth goal of the tournament that was a draw with Cape Verde.

After hitting the back of the net in the Round of 16 Aboubakar failed to add in his tally with his nation eliminated on penalties by Egypt at the semi-final stage.

The soccer player signed off in style by scoring two more in the third match. As his final tally was the most goals scored by an AFCON competitor since 1974 and one off the all-time single tournament record.

The honour is held by Pierre Ndaye Mulamba who hit nine goals for Zaire in the tournament of 1974. Told by his coaches to make the most of the fact that he was unknown, he certainly followed their instructions.

Not only being AFCON top scorer that year, but also named the best player in the competition as Vincent Aboubakar helped the then-Zaire become African champions for only the second time in their history.

Considering the achievements, the AFCON top scorer and his teammates were rewarded with a house and Volkswagen Passat by Zaire president Mobutu Sese Seko.

The AFCON released list included other top scorers Hassan El-Shazly who is the only player to score more than one hat-trick in the tournament. The player is defined as a ‘Devastating Shooter’ and ‘Lethal with both feet’. He scored three goals in Egypt in their 6-3 defeat of Nigeria in 1963.

Then he scored all three goals as his nation claimed third place in a 3-1 victory over Ivory Coast in 1970.

Laurent Pokou was AFCON top scorer in 1968 and 1970. But no player has ever topped his record of five goals in one game. He achieved a feat as Ivory Coast thumped Ethiopia 6-1.

Besides Pokou, there have been five other AFCON top scorers on more than one occasion who are Segun Odegbami of Nigeria, Roger Milla of Cameroon and Rashidi Yekini of Nigeria who won the Golden Boot.

Cameroon dominated the top scorer list, over a 6-year period at the start of the millennium with Patrick M’Boma won back-to-back Golden Boots in 2002 and 2004 before Samuel Eto’o repeated the trick in 2006 and 2008.

See the 2024 top scorer list by AFCON: