The Premier League's African Stars: Key Players for 26-27 Season
The Premier League’s African core is once again stacked for 26-27: established stars, expensive gambles, late bloomers, and players staring at what might be the defining season of their careers. Twelve names, twelve storylines that could shape the campaign.
Carlos Baleba – Brighton & Hove Albion
A year on, Carlos Baleba is stuck in the same holding pattern. Still a Brighton player, still hovering on the brink of a move to Manchester United.
Last season’s failed transfer hurt him. Everyone saw it. His form dipped, and head coach Fabian Hurzeler openly questioned whether the Cameroon international had allowed the saga to get inside his head. The explosive Baleba of 24-25 never truly reappeared.
This time the need at Old Trafford is sharper. Casemiro has gone, United’s midfield requires fresh legs and personality, and Baleba, still only 22, fits that brief. If the move happens, he will walk into a more stable United than the one he nearly joined last summer, and into the orbit of Michael Carrick, whose influence on young midfielders needs no explanation.
One way or another, this has to be the year he stops hovering on the cusp and finally steps through the door.
Amad Diallo – Manchester United
Amad Diallo returns to Manchester with his reputation enhanced by a vibrant FIFA World Cup for Ivory Coast.
Some felt Emerse Fae could have used him more, but Diallo still left his mark: a classy winner against Ecuador, then the equaliser in that chaotic, ultimately doomed Last 16 tie with Norway. He delivered in big moments.
Now he is 24. No longer the wonderkid, no longer the “one for the future.” Under Ruben Amorim he produced flashes of brilliance, but flashes are not enough at United. This season must be about ownership of a starting place, not just cameos off the bench.
Diallo has the tools: tight-space trickery, balance, vision, and the capacity to conjure the spectacular. The question now is blunt: does he turn those attributes into week-in, week-out production and become one of the league’s true box-office wingers?
Iliman Ndiaye – Everton
At the World Cup, Iliman Ndiaye barely played. When he did, he lit up games.
In just 113 minutes he scored once and laid on two assists, a sharp reminder of his ability to dismantle defences with a drop of the shoulder or a disguised pass. He remains one of the Premier League’s most watchable players, a pure technician who can embarrass opponents in a phone box.
Yet Everton still feel like a puzzle unsolved. David Moyes has not consistently unlocked Ndiaye, nor fully settled on his best role. Is he a roaming 10, a wide creator, a second striker? The indecision has cost both player and club.
Rumours swirl: Saudi interest, reports of a rejected new deal, uncertainty over whether he even stays at Goodison Park. If he does, nine direct goal involvements won’t cut it this time. For a 26-year-old at the peak of his powers, this season must be about numbers to match the talent.
Nicolas Jackson – Chelsea
Nicolas Jackson’s future looked clearer at the start of the summer than it does now.
Fresh off a loan spell at Bayern Munich, there was a sense he might get a second life at Chelsea, another crack at Stamford Bridge. Xabi Alonso spoke warmly about him, even as Jackson struggled to shine at the World Cup. There was at least a platform to build from.
Then came the twist. Reports this week say Chelsea have told up to 12 players to train away from the first team. Jackson is on that list. It is the bluntest signal yet that there will be no West London revival for the 25-year-old.
Transfer talk has quickly moved to Aston Villa and a possible reunion with Unai Emery, the coach who coaxed such promise from him at Villarreal. A switch to Villa Park could reset his career, but it also ramps up the stakes. For a 6'2 striker still searching for a permanent home at the elite level, this season looks like a crossroads.
Antoine Semenyo – Manchester City
Antoine Semenyo did not need a long adaptation period at Manchester City. He crashed through the door.
He arrived, embraced the demands of an elite dressing room, and promptly scored a gorgeous winner in the FA Cup final. It was the kind of moment that turns a signing into a statement.
Now Pep Guardiola has gone. The Ghana international loses the chance to grow further under one of the game’s defining coaches, and the challenge shifts: can he build on that electric start without the man who first trusted him?
The competition at City will be brutal, as always, but Semenyo has set his own bar. A 20-goal season is a realistic target if he stays fit, particularly as his understanding with Erling Haaland continues to develop. The opportunity is enormous. So is the pressure.
Brandon Thomas-Asante – Coventry City
Brandon Thomas-Asante’s journey to the Premier League has not been glamorous. It has been relentless.
He climbed through the lower leagues, kept scoring, kept running, kept believing. At the World Cup, he played only 51 minutes for Ghana, yet still produced the decisive assist in the opener against Panama. It was a glimpse of his impact in tight windows.
Now, at 27, he finally gets his shot in the top flight with Coventry City. Speaking to ESPN, he laid bare the grind behind the breakthrough: “It’s definitely a case of holding out and holding out, pushing, pushing. I’m grateful to God that the breakthrough has happened -- to be in the Premier League now, which is where I’ve always wanted to be, and believed I can be.”
He will bring pace, aggression, and a nose for goal to Coventry’s attack. The questions are brutal and simple: how quickly can he adapt to the jump in quality, and will he see enough minutes in a squad suddenly stacked with attacking options?
Taiwo Awoniyi – Coventry City
Coventry have not stopped at Thomas-Asante. Taiwo Awoniyi arrives from Nottingham Forest in a £9 million deal, another heavyweight addition to their forward line.
For the Nigeria striker, this feels like last-chance territory at this level. He is 29 now. The raw materials have always been obvious: smart movement, physical presence, sharp instincts in the box. Yet he has not hit double figures in the Premier League since 2022-23.
Last season he scored just four league goals, his momentum disrupted by injuries, but Coventry will not be in the mood for caveats. They need a reliable scorer to keep their heads above water in a ruthless division.
If Awoniyi cannot rediscover that earlier ruthlessness now, when the role is clear and the need is urgent, when will he?
Yoane Wissa – Newcastle United
Yoane Wissa’s first year at Newcastle United was a slog.
Signed from Brentford for an initial £50 million, he arrived with expectations to match the fee. Injury slowed him early, and even when he got going – opening his account in the EFL Cup in December – the league goals simply did not follow. One. Just one, all season.
For a 29-year-old brought in as a key attacking figure, that return was nowhere near enough.
Now comes the reset. Eddie Howe has gone, the squad is being reshaped, and Wissa must fight for his place in a new-look Newcastle side. He has a point to prove, not just to the club but to a league that has only seen a muted version of the player who once terrorised defences for Brentford.
This season will reveal whether that first year was an aberration or a warning.
Bryan Mbeumo – Manchester United
Bryan Mbeumo has taken a very different path since leaving Brentford.
At Manchester United, he showed he belonged straight away. In a turbulent campaign, particularly as Ruben Amorim’s reign unravelled, Mbeumo’s intelligence, tireless movement and reliability made him a favourite with coaches and supporters alike.
He has already proved he can be a central figure in a big club attack. Now the bar moves. Twenty league goals should be his target; he hit that mark with Brentford in 24-25. The concern is the slump that scarred last season: a barren spell from early February to late May, when the goals simply dried up.
United cannot afford a repeat. Neither can Mbeumo, not if he wants to be spoken about in the same breath as the division’s most decisive forwards.
Omar Marmoush – Manchester City
Omar Marmoush arrived at Manchester City with a reputation forged at Eintracht Frankfurt as a consistent, dangerous scorer. Last season, that version of him barely surfaced.
Under Guardiola, he managed just three league goals and only eight starts. The talent was there, but the fit was not. He drifted to the fringes as Semenyo surged.
Now the landscape has shifted. With Enzo Maresca in charge, Marmoush has a fresh chance to stake his claim. He has already made noise in pre-season, scoring twice in a win over Atletico Madrid and reminding everyone why City signed him in the first place.
Yet uncertainty lingers. Talk of a move to Tottenham Hotspur refuses to go away. For Marmoush, this campaign could either be a rebirth in sky blue or the prelude to a high-profile exit.
Frank Onyeka – Coventry City
Frank Onyeka returns to the Premier League with unfinished business.
At Brentford, he never quite nailed down a permanent starting role under Thomas Frank. He contributed, he competed, but he did not dominate. It was only when he dropped into the second tier under Frank Lampard that he truly took command of games again.
Coventry have given him another shot at the top level, and he brings something they desperately need: experience of relegation battles. He has been in the trenches before and knows what survival football looks like.
At 28, with another Africa Cup of Nations on the horizon for Nigeria next summer, Onyeka has every incentive to make this season count. This is his chance to show he is not just a solid squad player, but a midfielder who can carry responsibility in the most unforgiving league in the world.
Ousmane Diomande – Nottingham Forest
Ousmane Diomande walks into the Premier League with a label that carries weight: Africa’s next great centre-back.
At Sporting Lisbon, he eventually looked as if he were cruising. Calm on the ball, dominant in duels, reading attacks two passes ahead. The Portuguese league stopped asking questions of him; he had all the answers.
England will not be so forgiving. Nottingham Forest, though, offer a smart landing spot. Their defensive solidity has underpinned their consolidation in the division, and Diomande steps into a structure that should allow him to grow rather than firefight from day one.
At 22, he has time. He also has the raw attributes – pace, composure, aggression, passing range – to become the prototype of the modern central defender. If he adapts quickly, Forest’s back line could quietly become one of the stories of the season. And if he thrives, how long before the very biggest clubs start circling?
