Slimani equals African World Cup record

The late goal scored by veteran striker Islam Slimani for Algeria’s in their World Cup Group G qualifier against Somalia on Thursday helped him to equal the record for the most goals in the African preliminaries.

The 35-year-old Slimani, the senior statesman in the Algeria squad for the home match at the start of the African qualifiers for the 2026 finals, has now netted 18 goals in World Cup qualifying games and equals the record previously set by Samuel Eto’o and since matched by Didier Drogba and Moumoui Dagano of Burkina Faso.

Slimani, who came on as a substitute in the 68th minute, scored his 45th goal for his country as well as he headed home a corner from Adam Ounas in the 80th minute for Algeria’s last goal in a laboured 3-1 victory in Algiers.

Now based in Brazil, Slimani was unaware of his feat until he was informed of it by reporters after the match. With a broad smile, he expressed his joy and pride at having reached such a milestone in his career and now has a chance to break it when the Algerians next take on Mozambique in Maputo this Sunday in their qualifier.

Slimani, whose previous clubs include Sporting Lisbon, Leicester City, Newcastle United, Fenerbahce, Monaco, Olympique Lyonnaise and Anderlecht, was the top scorer in the African qualifiers for the last World Cup in Qatar with eight goals but Algeria were bundled out in dramatic fashion in the last minutes of extra time of their two-legged playoff tie against Cameroon.

He scored five goals in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers to help Algeria qualify for the finals in Brazil.

Thursday marked his 96th cap for Algeria.

Dagano, who played for a handful of French clubs, holds the record for the most goals in a single African qualifying campaign with 12 in the 2010 qualifiers.