Premier League’s African Stars for 26-27: Key Players to Watch
The Premier League’s African core is as deep as ever for 26-27: established stars, expensive gambles, late bloomers and youngsters who suddenly find the spotlight burning hot. Twelve names, twelve storylines that could shape the season.
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 edge of a move to Manchester United.
The transfer collapsed last summer and his season went with it. Fabian Hürzeler openly criticised the Cameroon midfielder for letting the failed deal cloud his focus, and Baleba never rediscovered the level he showed in 24-25.
This time the stakes are higher. Casemiro has gone, United’s need in central midfield is sharper, and Old Trafford is calmer under Michael Carrick than it was 12 months ago. At 22, Baleba should be arriving at a club better equipped to handle him — and a club that needs him more than ever.
Amad Diallo – Manchester United
Amad Diallo returns from an impressive FIFA World Cup with Ivory Coast to find a different kind of pressure waiting at United.
He didn’t dominate the tournament, but he made his moments count: a classy winner against Ecuador, then the equaliser in the dramatic, doomed last-16 clash with Norway. Those are big-stage contributions.
Now he’s 24. The prospect tag has expired. Under Ruben Amorim he produced flashes, but this season has to be about ownership of a starting place, not cameos. Diallo is technically superb, slippery in tight pockets, capable of outrageous finishes.
The question is no longer whether he’s talented enough. It’s whether he can turn that talent into 30-game influence in a United shirt.
Iliman Ndiaye – Everton
Iliman Ndiaye barely played at the World Cup. Just 113 minutes. Somehow, that was enough to remind everyone how dangerous he is.
One goal, two assists, and every touch seemed to come with a little bit of theatre. He remains one of the league’s purest entertainers, a playmaker who can embarrass defenders and light up dull games.
Yet Everton still haven’t quite worked him out. David Moyes has never fully settled on Ndiaye’s best role, or how to build around his gifts. Now Saudi interest is circling, reports say the 26-year-old has turned down a new contract, and his future at Goodison Park hangs in the balance.
If he stays, nine direct goal involvements won’t be enough. A player this gifted has to carry more of the attacking load.
Nicolas Jackson – Chelsea
Nicolas Jackson’s Chelsea story looked like it might get a second chapter after his loan at Bayern Munich. Instead, the plot has twisted again.
Xabi Alonso has praised the striker, even as his World Cup form underwhelmed, but the clearest signal came from Cobham: reports this week say Jackson is among a group of up to 12 players told to train away from the first team.
For a 25-year-old still trying to prove he belongs at the very top, that’s brutal. It points towards the exit, not redemption in West London. A move to Aston Villa, where he could reunite with former Villarreal coach Unai Emery, is being floated and makes a lot of sense.
At 6'2, mobile and aggressive, Jackson needs a manager who trusts him and a club that sees him as a solution, not a problem to move on.
Antoine Semenyo – Manchester City
Antoine Semenyo walked into Manchester City last season and behaved like he’d always belonged there.
He adapted instantly to the demands of a European superpower, scored a gorgeous FA Cup final winner and looked every inch a City forward. Then Pep Guardiola left, and the landscape shifted.
The Ghana international now has to build on that electric start under Enzo Maresca, not Guardiola. Minutes will be scarce, as they always are at City, but the bar is clear: pushing beyond 20 goals in all competitions and sharpening his partnership with Erling Haaland.
If he hits those numbers, he doesn’t just stay in the team. He becomes one of the pillars of City’s next era.
Brandon Thomas-Asante – Coventry City
From the lower leagues to the Premier League at 27, Brandon Thomas-Asante has taken the scenic route.
He tasted the World Cup with Ghana, though only for 51 minutes. One of those minutes mattered: he supplied the decisive assist in the opening win over Panama, then watched most of the rest from the bench as Ghana surged to the last 16.
Now comes the real dream. Coventry’s promotion hands him a first crack at the top flight. Speaking to ESPN, he laid out exactly what it took to get here: “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’ll bring pace, aggression and goals to the Sky Blues’ attack. The challenge is simple and brutal: can he translate all that into end product against the best defenders in the country, and can he do it often enough to stay on the pitch?
Taiwo Awoniyi – Coventry City
Coventry haven’t stopped at Thomas-Asante. They’ve doubled down with Taiwo Awoniyi, signed from Nottingham Forest for £9 million to give their attack extra weight and experience.
For the Nigeria striker, this feels like a last swing at the Premier League. He has the tools — smart movement, strength, penalty-box instincts — but he hasn’t hit double figures in the league since 2022-23.
Last season brought just four goals, with injuries interrupting his rhythm. Coventry can’t afford that version. They need the ruthless finisher who once looked like a long-term solution at Forest.
If Awoniyi fires, Coventry’s survival chances rise sharply. If he doesn’t, the division may not give him another chance.
Yoane Wissa – Newcastle United
Yoane Wissa’s first year at Newcastle United was a mess. There’s no way to dress it up.
The DR Congo forward arrived from Brentford for an initial £50 million, missed early chunks of the season through injury, and never really recovered. One EFL Cup goal in December, just one league goal all campaign. For that fee, in that environment, it was a grim return.
Now he’s 29, one of the senior figures in a squad being reshaped after Eddie Howe’s departure. The slate isn’t clean, but it is different. Newcastle need to know exactly what Wissa is for them: starter, impact sub, or expensive mistake.
This season will answer that.
Bryan Mbeumo – Manchester United
Where Wissa stalled, Bryan Mbeumo soared.
Once his partner in crime at Brentford, the Cameroon forward has taken to life at Manchester United with authority. In his debut season he showed he belongs at the very top, his movement and work rate helping the club ride out the turbulence of Ruben Amorim’s final months.
He’s already proved he can score 20 Premier League goals in a campaign — he did it for Brentford in 24-25 — and that has to be the target again. The concern is the drought: he failed to score between early February and late May last season.
United can’t afford their main wide threat to vanish for three months. If Mbeumo solves that problem, he could end the year as one of the division’s most complete forwards.
Omar Marmoush – Manchester City
Omar Marmoush arrived at Manchester City with a reputation forged at Eintracht Frankfurt as a consistent, sharp finisher. That version of him barely surfaced under Guardiola.
Three league goals. Only eight starts. The talent was obvious, the trust wasn’t. By the end of the season, he looked like a player stuck between roles and ideas.
Guardiola’s exit might hurt Semenyo, but it could liberate Marmoush. Under Maresca, he has already flashed his best self in pre-season, scoring twice in a win over Atletico Madrid and reminding everyone why City signed him in the first place.
Talk of a move to Tottenham Hotspur refuses to go away. Stay or go, this year has to be about re-establishing his value at the very top level.
Frank Onyeka – Coventry City
Frank Onyeka returns to the Premier League with a point to prove.
At Brentford he never fully convinced as a guaranteed starter, often trusted for his work rate but not always for his all-round influence. Drop down a level, and the picture changed. Under Frank Lampard in the Championship, he found rhythm, responsibility and form.
Coventry now hand him a second shot at the top flight, and his experience in relegation fights with Brentford could be priceless in a dressing room braced for a survival scrap. At 28, he also knows that a strong season keeps him in the frame for Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations squad next summer.
Midfielders who can handle the chaos of a relegation battle are gold. Onyeka has lived that chaos before.
Ousmane Diomande – Nottingham Forest
Ousmane Diomande walks into Nottingham Forest with a label few defenders his age carry: Africa’s next great centre-back.
At Sporting Lisbon he eventually made the Portuguese top flight look too easy, cruising through games with a blend of composure, physical presence and passing range that made bigger clubs circle. Forest, whose solidity at the back has underpinned their Premier League survival, might be the perfect finishing school.
The Premier League will test him in ways Portugal couldn’t. Quicker strikers, more aerial duels, less time on the ball. He’s only 22, but the raw material is all there for an elite modern defender.
If he adapts quickly, Forest won’t be the last English club he dominates for.
