The goal that sealed the Premier League? Take your pick.
Manchester City’s second against Brighton & Hove Albion, the one that gave them the lead and edged them into the driving seat on the see-saw, last-day wrestle for top place? Riyad Mahrez set it up, with a devilishly curled corner for Aymeric Laporte to meet.
The goal that really confirmed City's title? Probably the next one in the 4-1 win. Mahrez scored it, with a rocket, after a trademark slalom. It was a good day for the Algerian, a reminder, after spending much of 2019 on the bench, of why City paid £60 million (Dh285.4m) for him and why he was once his continent's player of the year.
It was a big day for various African Footballers of the Year, endorsing how vital players from Africa have been in this, a season that has boosted more than any the Premier League’s sense of its global pre-eminence.
This was a season that provided a cliffhanger title-race between two high-class contestants watched across the world, and filled all the places in the major European club finals with English clubs.
Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the 2015 African Footballer of the Year, struck two goals at Burnley, less than 72 hours after his hat-trick in Valencia had propelled Arsenal to the Europa League final. It took his tally for the league season to 22 and meant Aubameyang caught up with reigning African Footballer of the Year’s Mohamed Salah’s total.
Nobody at that point had scored more Premier League goals in 2018/19 than the Gabonese or the Egyptian, although 19 minutes after Aubameyang’s second, the striker who had done everything to keep Liverpool in the title-race well into Matchday 38 joined them.
Sadio Mane’s 21st goal of the league season against Wolverhampton Wanderers put Liverpool top of the table for 21 minutes of the climactic afternoon. The Senegalese’s 22nd, nine minutes from full-time, would not depose City from the summit, but it did place Mane joint top of the Golden Boot rankings.
So three Africans share that prize, 66 Premier League goals between them. And this was no one-off. Salah, Mane and Aubameyang have 93 league goals between them since last February, when Aubameyang made his debut for Arsenal, a winter signing from Borussia Dortmund.
“It’s a good sign for the continent,” said Aubameyang. “We are all representing Africa, and I like these two guys [Salah and Mane].”
Salah and Mane talk about their close bond, too, occasionally as a reassurance that they are partners before they would ever be rivals in any chase for the best individual goalscoring statistics.
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Premier League team of the season
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Goalkeeper: Alisson (Liverpool) – Jurgen Klopp said the summer signing made the spectacular look easy. He also made clean sheets a regular occurrence for Liverpool. Catherine Ivill / Getty Images -
Right-back: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) – Not just a right-back, but a regular source of creativity. His crossing and set-pieces brought a record haul of assists. Dave Thompson / AP Photo -
Centre-back: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) – A colossus. The Dutchman has seemed bigger, quicker, calmer and better than everyone else in an extraordinary season. Phil Noble / Reuters -
Centre-back: Aymeric Laporte (Manchester City) – A bit-part player after his January 2018 arrival, he became indispensable this season and scored vital goals. John Sibley / Reuters -
Left-back: Andrew Robertson (Liverpool) – Indefatigable. Non-stop running and quality crossing have made a man who joined from relegated Hull perhaps the best left-back in the world. Phil Noble / Reuters -
Right midfield: Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) – A role model, on and off the pitch. Sterling has shown last season was no one-off with another prolific campaign. Mike Hewitt / Getty Images -
Centre midfield: Bernardo Silva (Manchester City) – Pep Guardiola’s pick for the individual awards. Superb in different positions and made key contributions in big games. Frank Augstein / AP Photo -
Centre midfield: Fernandinho (Manchester City) – Even at 34, still the best defensive midfielder in the league. No wonder City are finding it so hard to replace him. Getty Images -
Left midfield: Eden Hazard (Chelsea) – If this is goodbye, he leaves having rarely played better. Outstanding, despite the problems around him, with goals and assists. Clive Mason / Getty Images) -
Striker: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) – Not many score hat-tricks against Arsenal and Chelsea in eight days or get at least 28 goals for the seventh time in eight seasons. Shaun Botterill / Getty Images -
Striker: Sadio Mane (Liverpool) – Just nudges out his Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah. Mane has been especially good in 2019, earning a share of the Golden Boot. Peter Powell / EPA
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There have been one or two moments when the question has been posed, when, say, a Salah decision to shoot rather than to pass to Mane has looked the wrong decision. But after two spectacular seasons together, the ledger is balanced: Mane has assisted eight Salah goals; Salah, who scored 32 league goals in 2017-18, has assisted the same number for Mane.
Theirs is a Liverpool increasingly built around African excellence. Joel Matip, the Cameroon international, has developed impressively this season, a trusted partner for Virgil Van Dijk in central defence.
Naby Keita, the Guinea midfielder, made important contributions to a historic campaign, though his has been disrupted by injury, the latest setback, knee ligament damage, ruling him out of the Uefa Champions League final against Tottenham Hotspur next month.
In that competition, Salah and Mane have four goals each, and a chance to add to those, to reward Liverpool’s endeavours with a trophy, and to then carry their momentum forward into a big summer.
The Africa Cup of Nations, to be staged in Salah’s Egypt, starts in late June. A match-winning performance in Madrid against Spurs, in the year’s biggest club showpiece, by Salah or Mane and followed by a stellar Cup of Nations might just swing the Ballon D’Or in the direction of an African footballer for the first time since Liberia's George Weah won it almost a quarter of a century ago.
