Delio Onnis (Argentina) |
Suppose a soccer club is looking for a great striker, someone who is capable of scoring
goals. Not just a few, but lots of them. Where should this club search for such a
guy? There’s only one answer to this question: South America. For this
story I’ve done some research on top strikers who are crowned top scorer in a foreign country.
These are my criteria:
- - The
top striker has to be a foreign player (and he remains a foreign player, even if
he acquires the nationality of the country where he's so succesful);
- - The
period is 1964 – 2013 (fifty years);
- - The
player has to be top scorer in one of the 25 strongest national leagues in the
world in 2013 (ranking by IFFHS, 29-01-2014). From Europe: Spain, England,
Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Belgium,
Czech Republic, Portugal, Netherlands, Greece and Scotland (16). From South
America: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador (6). From
Asia: South Korea and Saudi Arabia (2). From North & Central America:
Mexico (1).
- - Every
top scorer title is worth one point. A shared title with one or more other
players still gets one point. A title won in only in a first or second stage of a season (mainly Apertura- and Clausura-titles) gets 0.5 points.
First, here
are the 52 countries which goal getters didn’t get their home country into the
Top 10:
No.
|
Country
|
Points
|
Best individual performance
|
11
|
Chile
|
7
|
Ivan Zamorano (2), top scorer in Switzerland
and Spain
|
12
|
Ivory Coast
|
6
|
Seydou Doumbia (3), twice top scorer in
Switzerland, one time in Russia.
|
Portugal
|
6
|
Pauleta (3), three times top scorer in France
|
|
Ghana
|
6
|
Anthoney Yeboah (2), twice top scorer in
Germany, Godwin Attram (2), twice top scorer in Saudi Arabia
|
|
15
|
Colombia
|
5.5
|
-
|
16
|
Mexico
|
5
|
Hugo Sanchez (5) five times top scorer in
Spain
|
Australia
|
5
|
-
|
|
Denmark
|
5
|
John Eriksen (2), twice top scorer in Switzerland
|
|
Nigeria
|
5
|
-
|
|
Senegal
|
5
|
-
|
|
Republic of Ireland
|
5
|
Tommy Coyne (2), twice top scorer in Scotland
|
|
22
|
Belgium
|
4
|
Luc Nilis (2), twice top scorer in the
Netherlands
|
Morocco
|
4
|
-
|
|
Hungary
|
4
|
-
|
|
Serbia
|
4
|
Mateja Kezman (3), three times top scorer in
the Netherlands
|
|
Ecuador
|
4
|
Christian Benitez (2), two times Apertura top
scorer and two times Clausura top scorer in Mexico
|
|
Wales
|
4
|
Ron Davies (2), twice top scorer in England
|
|
Italy
|
4
|
-
|
|
29
|
Austria
|
3
|
Alfred Riedl (2), twice top scorer in Belgium
|
DR Congo
|
3
|
Shabani Nonda (2), top scorer in France and
in Switzerland
|
|
England
|
3
|
-
|
|
Georgia
|
3
|
George Demetradze (2), top scorer in Ukraine
and in Russia
|
|
Scotland
|
3
|
-
|
|
Bulgaria
|
3
|
Peter Aleksandrov (2), twice top scorer in
Switzerland
|
|
35
|
Norway
|
2
|
-
|
Northern Ireland
|
2
|
-
|
|
Greece
|
2
|
-
|
|
Poland
|
2
|
Krzystof Warzycha (2), twice top scorer in
Greece
|
|
Bosnia/Herzegowina
|
2
|
-
|
|
Cameroon
|
2
|
-
|
|
Romania
|
2
|
Viorel Moldovan (2), twice top scorer in
Switzerland
|
|
Ukraine
|
2
|
Andrei Shevchenko (2), twice top scorer in
Italy
|
|
Angola
|
2
|
-
|
|
Montenegro
|
2
|
Dejan Damjanovic (2), twice top scorer in
South Korea
|
|
Spain
|
2
|
-
|
|
Armenia
|
2
|
-
|
|
Algeria
|
2
|
-
|
|
Uzbekistan
|
2
|
Maksim Shatskikh (2), twice top scorer in
Ukraine
|
|
Slovakia
|
2
|
-
|
|
Czech Republic
|
2
|
-
|
|
51
|
Peru
|
1.5
|
-
|
52
|
Iceland, South Africa, Guinea, Finland,
Canada, Thailand, Trinidad, Switzerland, Azerbedjan, Tadjikistan
|
1
|
-
|
62
|
USA
|
0.5
|
-
|
Now, let’s start
the countdown, from 10 to 1:
10. Croatia
Players
|
Number of national leagues
|
Top scorer titles
|
Seven different players
|
In four different countries
|
9
|
Josip Weber |
9. Yugoslavia
Players
|
Number of national leagues
|
Top scorer titles
|
Six different players
|
In five different countries
|
9
|
Yugoslavia
has mainly Josip Skoblar to thank for its position in my Top 10. After playing
for OFK Belgrade he was allowed to play abroad in 1967, 26 years old. First
stop was Hannover 96 in Germany, three years later he moved to the south of
France, to play for Olympique Marseille. It was love at first sight. Skoblar
won the top scorer title three years in a row, scoring 44 (1970-71), 30
(1971-72) and 26 goals (1972-73). The other Yugoslav player with more than one
title is Vahid Halihodzic, who was successful with French club Nantes in
1982-83 and 1984-85. Barre in mind, at that time Skoblar was from Yugoslavia, although people nowadays might see him being Croatian.
8. Germany
Players
|
Number of national leagues
|
Top scorer titles
|
Nine different players
|
In four different leagues
|
10
|
Erwin Kostedde |
7. France
Players
|
Number of national leagues
|
Top scorer titles
|
Six different players
|
In four different leagues
|
11
|
Thierry Henry |
Another
surprise: France got into number 7! In a short period as well, as they had zero
top scorer titles until the early eighties, when Michel Platini went to play
for Juventus in Italy. He was capocannonieri
three times in a row, ’83, ’84 and ’85. Some fifteen years later, Thierry Henry
did even better. Not at Juventus though, where he had one disappointing season
before being transferred to Arsenal in London. In eight seasons with The
Gunners Henry won the top scorer title four times. Other French winners are
Djibril Cissé (two with Panathinaikos), Nicolas Anelka, David Trezeguet and
unknown Jeremy Perbet in Belgium. Of course, David Trezeguet can also be seen
as Argentinian. But he was born in France and rose to stardom in France –
although he played his very first games for Platense in Argentina. So I’ve put
him here with the French.
6. Paraguay
Players
|
Number of national leagues
|
Top scorer titles
|
Ten different players
|
In six different countries
|
12,5
|
Eladio Zarate |
5. Sweden
Players
|
Number of national leagues
|
Top scorer titles
|
Five different players
|
In six different countries
|
13
|
Henrik Larsson |
4. Netherlands
Players
|
Number of national leagues
|
Top scorer titles
|
Eleven different players
|
In seven different leagues
|
15
|
Ruud van Nistelrooy |
3. Uruguay
Players
|
Number of national leagues
|
Top scorer titles
|
Thirty different players
|
In eleven different countries
|
34
|
Enzo Francescoli |
2. Brazil
Players
|
Number of national leagues
|
Top scorer titles
|
Fifty-one different players
|
In nineteen different countries
|
76,5
|
Evanivaldo Cabinho Castro |
Brazil are not on
number one, as many would imagine. Still, Brazil has some amazing records to show.
For example, winning the top scorer title in 19 of the possible 24 countries (Brazil
itself is number 25) is incredible. And so is having more than fifty different
players to be crowned top scorer all over the world. Among all those brilliant
players, I’ll mention the ones that collected three or more titles.
Like
Ronaldo (two times in Spain, once in the Netherlands), Romario (three in the
Netherlands, one in Spain) or Sonny Anderson (three times in France, one time
in Switzerland). Even with five times in Portugal Mario Jardel can’t claim having his
picture in this article. That privilege goes to Evanivaldo Cabinho Castro, who was top scorer
of the Mexican league eight (!) times in the late seventies, early eighties.
Which is, by far, the best individual accomplishment of all strikers in this story.
1. Argentina
Players
|
Number of national league
|
Top scorer titles
|
Seventy-three different players
|
In fourteen different countries
|
94,5
|
Clubs in desperate need of a goal getter should definitely search for soccer players from
Argentina. That approach gets them the best chance of succeeding.
No less then seventy-three different soccer players have earned top scorer
titles in fourteen different countries. Of course, quite a few were earned in other
South American countries like Colombia (22 points), Ecuador (18,5 points) and Chile (11,5 points). But
Argentinians are also the leading foreign force in France. The list of those that won a
top scorer title three times starts off
with José Maria Ferrero and Hugo Londero (both three times in Colombia), Angel
Liciardi and Ariel Graziani (who adopted Ecuadorian citizenship halfway his
career) in Ecuador and Oscar Fabbiani in Ecuador. In Europa the same amount was
collected by Christian Gimenez in Switzerland and by the great Lionel Messi
with Barcelona. On top we have two strikers that ruled France from the early
seventies until halfway through the eighties. Carlos Bianchi and Delio Onnis
both won the French top scorer title five times. Onnis scored an average of 25
goals in those five times, Bianchi was even more prolific: he earned his five
titles by scoring 156 goals.
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