Premier League’s African Stars to Watch for 2026-27

The Premier League’s African core for 2026-27 is as rich and varied as ever: established stars, expensive gambles, late bloomers, and youngsters standing on the edge of something bigger. Twelve players, twelve storylines that could shape the season.

Carlos Baleba – Brighton & Hove Albion

A year on, Carlos Baleba is stuck in the same limbo. Still a Brighton player, still heavily linked with Manchester United, still waiting for the move that never quite lands.

Last season, the failed transfer hurt him. Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler called him out for letting the saga get into his head, and the Cameroon midfielder never rediscovered the sharp, dynamic form he showed in 2024-25. Now Casemiro has gone, United’s need for a central midfielder is greater, the pathway clearer.

He’s 22. He’ll walk into a dressing room overseen by Michael Carrick, a coach who knows that position better than almost anyone. The Old Trafford he might join now looks calmer than the one that courted him last summer. The opportunity is obvious. So is the risk of another year drifting by.

Amad Diallo – Manchester United

Amad Diallo returns from an uplifting FIFA World Cup with Ivory Coast knowing this can’t be another season of cameos and caveats.

He didn’t dominate the tournament, but he delivered when it mattered: a classy winner against Ecuador, then the equaliser in the chaotic, ultimately doomed last-16 tie with Norway. The talent has never been the question.

Now 24, he’s outgrown the “prospect” tag. Under Ruben Amorim he flashed his quality in spurts, twisting away from markers in tight spaces, threatening with that left foot, hinting at something bigger. This year has to be different. This year he has to nail down a starting role, week after week.

Technically superb, slippery in traffic, capable of the outrageous – the ingredients are there. The league is waiting to see if he can turn highlights into a body of work.

Iliman Ndiaye – Everton

Iliman Ndiaye barely played at the World Cup. He barely needed to.

Across just 113 minutes, the Senegal forward scored once and set up two more, a reminder of why defenders hate facing him: the feints, the soft touch, the sudden burst of invention. He remains one of the Premier League’s most entertaining players, a street footballer in a system league.

Yet at Everton, something hasn’t quite clicked. David Moyes still seems unsure how to use him, or where. Is he a 10? A second striker? A drifting wide playmaker? The numbers – nine direct goal involvements last season – don’t do justice to his ability.

Now the noise grows. Saudi interest. Reports that he has turned down a new contract. If he stays at Goodison Park, he has to turn style into volume. If he goes, Everton will lose their purest bit of magic.

Nicolas Jackson – Chelsea

Nicolas Jackson’s future looked simple at the start of the summer. Loan at Bayern Munich done, a second shot at Chelsea beckoned. A reset. A chance to prove he could lead the line at Stamford Bridge.

That clarity has gone.

Xabi Alonso has spoken warmly about the striker, even after a World Cup that never quite caught fire for him. Yet reports in the Telegraph say the 25-year-old is among a dozen Chelsea players ordered to train away from the first team. That’s not a hint. That’s a message.

At 6-foot-2, with pace and presence, Jackson should be approaching his peak. Instead, he finds himself on the outside, his name linked to Aston Villa and a reunion with Unai Emery, the coach who first unlocked him at Villarreal.

A move to Villa Park feels logical for everyone. But until it happens, this crucial season in his career hangs in the balance.

Antoine Semenyo – Manchester City

Antoine Semenyo walked into Manchester City last season and behaved as if he’d always belonged there.

He adapted instantly to the demands of a superclub, scored important goals, and wrote his name into club folklore with a gorgeous FA Cup final winner. The stage never seemed too big.

Then Pep Guardiola walked away.

For the Ghana forward, that cuts both ways. He loses the chance to be sculpted further by one of the game’s great thinkers, but he also steps into a City side where roles and hierarchies are being redefined. His challenge now is simple: prove that the early surge was not a honeymoon period.

Competition will be brutal, as always. Yet the 20-goal mark is a realistic target, especially if his understanding with Erling Haaland continues to grow. City demand end product. Semenyo looks ready to supply it.

Brandon Thomas-Asante – Coventry City

Brandon Thomas-Asante has taken the long road. Non-league grounds, lower-league scraps, years of graft before the big door finally opened.

At the World Cup with Ghana, he got just 51 minutes. He still made them count, laying on the decisive assist in the opening win over Panama. It was a brief glimpse of the direct running and relentless energy that have carried him this far.

Now, at 27, he steps into the Premier League with newly promoted Coventry City. Speaking to ESPN, he didn’t hide his emotions: years of “holding out and holding out, pushing, pushing,” and now the payoff – the league he always believed he belonged in.

He will bring speed, aggression and goals to Coventry’s attack. The questions are sharp: can he handle the jump in quality, and will he see enough of the pitch to prove it?

Taiwo Awoniyi – Coventry City

Coventry have not stopped at Thomas-Asante. They’ve doubled down, landing Taiwo Awoniyi from Nottingham Forest in a £9 million deal to bolster their survival bid.

For the Nigeria striker, this feels like the last big swing at this level. He’s 29 now. Intelligent movement, raw power, penalty-box instincts – the tools are there, but the output has tailed off. He hasn’t hit double figures in the Premier League since 2022-23.

Last season brought just four league goals, with injuries interrupting his rhythm. Coventry can’t afford that kind of return. They need the version of Awoniyi who bullies centre-backs, attacks crosses, and scores ugly goals when the game turns frantic.

If he finds that form again, Coventry’s chances of staying up rise sharply. If he doesn’t, the top flight may not wait around for him a third time.

Yoane Wissa – Newcastle United

Yoane Wissa arrived at Newcastle United as a £50 million statement. He left his first season on Tyneside with a single league goal and a lot of explaining to do.

Injuries disrupted his early months after leaving Brentford, but the problems ran deeper. Even after he opened his account in the EFL Cup in December, the goals never flowed. For a 29-year-old signed at that price, it was a brutal debut campaign.

Now everything around him is changing. Eddie Howe has gone. The squad is being reshaped. The project is being tweaked.

For DR Congo’s Wissa, this is a crossroads. He has the experience, the movement, the finishing touch that made him so dangerous in West London. Newcastle need that version of him, not the hesitant, half-fit figure of last season. His role in this new-look side will say a lot about where both player and club are heading.

Bryan Mbeumo – Manchester United

Once Wissa’s foil at Brentford, Bryan Mbeumo has made the step up look easy.

In his first season at Manchester United, he proved he belonged among the elite. Intelligent runs, tireless pressing, smart decisions in the final third – he became a reliable outlet in a team wrestling with turbulence during the final days of Ruben Amorim’s reign.

The bar is now higher. Twenty Premier League goals should be his target; he hit that number for Brentford in 2024-25. Yet last season came with a warning: a barren spell from early February to late May, a worrying drought for a player expected to carry a serious share of the scoring load.

If he can smooth out those dips, he has the tools to be one of the division’s most complete forwards. United will expect nothing less.

Omar Marmoush – Manchester City

Omar Marmoush’s first year at Manchester City never quite made sense.

The Egypt forward arrived with a strong scoring record from Eintracht Frankfurt and obvious qualities: pace, directness, a nose for space. Yet under Guardiola, he drifted to the fringes. Three league goals. Just eight starts. A talent parked in the shadows.

Guardiola’s departure might be exactly what he needed.

Under Enzo Maresca, Marmoush has flickered back to life, impressing in pre-season and scoring twice in a friendly win over Atletico Madrid. The door looks ajar again, even as rumours swirl about a possible move to Tottenham Hotspur.

This season will tell us whether he becomes a key part of Maresca’s City or a valuable asset cashed in to reshape the squad.

Frank Onyeka – Coventry City

Coventry’s Premier League return has a distinctly African heartbeat, and Frank Onyeka is at the centre of it.

His first spell in the division with Brentford never fully caught fire. He was useful, combative, but rarely undroppable under Thomas Frank. Relegation to the second tier and a spell under Frank Lampard seemed to unlock more of his game, giving him rhythm and responsibility.

Now he’s back in the top flight with Coventry, older, tougher, and with a clearer sense of what survival battles demand. That experience with Brentford – the tension, the grind, the pressure of every point – should prove crucial.

At 28, with another Africa Cup of Nations on the horizon for Nigeria next summer, he has every reason to turn this season into his most complete yet.

Ousmane Diomande – Nottingham Forest

Ousmane Diomande walks into the Premier League with expectation already wrapped around his shoulders.

The Ivory Coast centre-back looked so comfortable by the end of his time at Sporting Lisbon that he appeared to be cruising through games in Portugal. Strong, quick, composed on the ball – the profile of a modern defender built for the very top.

Now comes the real test.

Nottingham Forest have built their survival on a stubborn, organised back line. It’s an ideal setting for a 22-year-old with elite potential to grow, but also an unforgiving one. Mistakes get punished here. Hype gets stripped away.

All the raw materials are there for Diomande to become Africa’s next great centre-back. The Premier League will reveal how quickly he can turn promise into dominance.