Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang eclipsed Tony Yeboah as the top-scoring African player in Bundesliga history this weekend, earning the Ghana legend’s praise in the process.
For 16 years, the former Black Stars forward had stood as the undisputed king of African strikers in the German top flight after netting 96 goals during notable spells with Eintracht Frankfurt and Hamburg.
Over the last three seasons, however, Aubameyang has gradually eaten away at Yeboah’s record, and overtook it this weekend when he netted his 97th goal, equalising for Borussia Dortmund in their 2-1 home defeat by Werder Bremen.
Most impressively, perhaps, Aubameyang took just 143 matches to hit 97 goals, while Yeboah struck his 96 in 223 games, having previously represented FC Saarbrucken in the German second division.
“I’m very happy for Aubameyang,” Yeboah told the BBC World Football programme after the 28-year-old broke his record. “Since I left Germany, I didn’t see any African player perform at my level.
“His current performance shows that African players can perform in Germany, and reminds German fans of what I did when I was there.”
While Yeboah has a great deal of admiration for the BVB hitman, he attributed the 2015 African Footballer of the Year’s successes to different reasons than his own.
“Aubameyang does not have my kind of physique,” Yeboah added, “but he is a very intelligent player.
“That’s what he uses in scoring the goals.”
After overtaking Yeboah as the top-scoring African in Bundesliga history, Aubameyang will now set his sights on matching another of the Ghanaian’s feats.
Between 1992 and 1994, the 51-year-old won back-to-back Golden Boots with Frankfurt, tying on 20 goals with Ulf Kirsten in 1992-93, before netting 18 goals – the same as Stefan Kuntz – in the 1993-94 campaign.
Aubameyang won his first Torjägerkanone last season when he scored 31 goals in 32 games to pip rival Robert Lewandowski to the prize. This term, he has 12 goals in 13 matches, and sits two goals behind the Bayern Munich hitman in the top scorer standings.
Credit: Kwese ESPN
