Gabon captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang etched his name in UEFA Europa League history on Thursday by becoming the all-time top scorer in the competition with 34 goals.
Aubameyang powered Marseille into the Europa League round of 16 with his opening goal in their 3-1 defeat of Shakhtar Donetsk at the Stade Velodrome.
It was an historic night for the 2015 African Footballer of the Year who has enjoyed fine scoring run in the secondary European competition since his debut match in August 2009.
Afrosport breaks down Aubameyang’s success in the Europa League, by highlighting each oponent he scored against and his best scoring season.
Aubameyang and the Europa League
As of February 23, 2024, Aubameyang has played a total of 62 games in the UEFA Europa League and he has scored 34 goals so far which made him the competition’s all-time top scorer.
He made his Europa League debut as a second-half substitute for Lille against Serbian club GFK Sloboda Uzice on August 6, 2009.
Aubameyang’s first goal in the competition came after he moved to Borussia Dortmund, finding the back of the net once in their 5-0 thrashing of Austrian club Wolfsberger AC on August 6, 2015.
His first Europa League hat-trick was against Azerbaijan’s Gabala FK in October 2015.
Aubameyang’s best scoring season in UEFA Europa League
The 34-year-old striker has played for five clubs in the UEFA Europa League across 15 years, they are Lille, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Barcelona and Marseille.
Aubameyang’s best-scoring run in the Europa League came in the 2015/16 season when he scored 11 goals in 14 matches for Dortmund.
During his first outing with Lille, he played nine matches but failed to find the back of net while at Arsenal, he scored 14 Europa League goals across three seasons and he returned two goals in six Europa League appearances for Barcelona in 2021-22 campaign.
Currently at Marseille, Aubameyang has scored seven goals in seven Europa League matches so far this campaign.
The Gabonese star came close to winning the Europa League title with Arsenal in the 2018-19 season but they lost to Chelsea in the final.
Aubmeyang’s goals against Europa League opponents
All of Aubameyang’s 34 UEFA Europa League goals have come against 16 teams.
- Wolfsberger AC – 1 goal
- Odds BK – 2 goals
- Gabala FK – 3 goals
- Gabala FK – 1 goal
- Tottenham Hotspur – 1 goal
- Tottenham Hotspur – 2 goals
- Liverpool – 1 goal
- Vorskla – 2 goals
- Rennes – 2 goals
- Valencia – 1 goal
- Valencia – 3 goals
- Eintracht Frankfurt – 1 goal
- Eintracht Frankfurt – 1 goal
- Olympiakos – 1 goal
- Rapid Vienna – 1 goal
- Benfica – 2 goals
- Napoli – 1 goal
- Galatasaray – 1 goal
- Ajax – 2 goals
- Ajax – 3 goals
- Shakhtar Donetsk – 1 goal
- Shakhtar Donetsk – 1 goal
