Over the years, Africa has given rise to one of the greatest athletes in the globe.
The continent has been showered with talents, which took it to the globe to showcase Africa’s greatness.
A lot of medals have landed in Africa.
Even though the continent has given birth to a lot of sports Stars, we will try to dig deeper and see who makes it to the top five of the greatest African athletes of all time.
5. GARY PLAYER
Gary James Player is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely reputed to be one of the greatest golfers of all time.
He was born on November 1, 1935, in Johannesburg, South Africa, a historical city that provided him with a platform to mark his name on the world’s biggest stages as a great.
The South African is said to have begun his golfing career at the age of 14 when he took golfing courses at Virginia Park in Johannesburg.
The player won nine major championships on the regular tour, and nine major championships on the champion’s tour.
During his career, the player won the 1965 US Open and became the only non-American to win all four majors in a career.
4. JACQUES KALLIS
South Africa is the only country in Africa known to give rides to the world’s best cricketers, and Jacques KALLIS is no exception.
Over the years, KALLIS has remained to be an outstanding cricketer, setting records that are yet to be broken.
The 47-year-old cricket coach remains to be the only cricketer ever to score more than 10,000 runs and take over 250 wickets in both test and ODI cricket.
On December 2013, KALLIS played in a second test against India in Durban, scoring his 45th test hundred in a match.
The record saw him becoming one of the few batsmen to score a century in his final test.
The South African-born cricketer hung up his boots as a cricket player on July 2014, and he was appointed as a cricket coach on October 2015, as a Knight Riders head coach.
3. ONS JABEUR
The Tunisian tennis star is the most charismatic African tennis star ever.
She had a highly productive junior career, with a 70 percent winning rate, making her an opponent you would not wish to face at any given championship.
Jabeur reached back-to-back French open girls’ singles finals in 2010 and 2011, winning the two championship titles.
She also reached two Grand Slams Singles finals in 2022, one at Wimbledon and the other at the US Open, finishing as a runner-up in both of them.
As of date, she remains to be the only African woman to have reached a major singles final in the sport.
2. GEORGE WEAH
Africa has produced some exceptional football stars that have taken the continent to the world’s biggest stages of the game.
Legends like Jay Jay Okocha, Abedi Pele, Roger Milla, Yaya Touré, Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o, and Nwankwo Kanu have all been seen gracing the sport, but who stands out as the best?
There is absolutely no doubt in picking Liberia’s George Weah as our number one best African footballer of all time.
The former AC Milan striker stands as the only African footballer to have won football’s most coveted award, the Ballon D’or in 1995.
On the same year, he went on to be crowned as the European Footballer of the Year, and the FIFA World Cup Player of the Year.
Having won an award that many football legends all over the globe be failed to win, it is surely undeniable to crown George Weah as the greatest African footballer of all time.
- ELIUD KIPCHOGE
Africa is the hood of the globe’s long-distance runners, and it is fair to say Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge is a human machine!
Have you ever reached a level where the whole globe cannot give you an opponent, so you decide to contest against time?
Well, Eliud Kipchoge did that!
In October 2019, Kipchoge ran a 42.195Km distance in a remarkable time of 1:59:40:2 making him become the first human ever to break the two-hour marathon barrier.
Not only that but also, Kipchoge is the current world record holder for the Marathon, setting a time record of 2:01:39 at the Berlin Marathon in 2018.
Internationally, Kipchoge accumulated a boatload of medals, winning a gold medal at the world championships, world cross country championships, and a pair of gold at the word athletics finals.
He has also won four gold medals at the Diamond League title in 2010, not to mention that he has also won seven major marathon titles from 2014-2019.
