Ligue 1: Amine Gouiri becomes the first African to open the championship in 14 years

21.08.26 FT Ligue 1 France

Marseille

4

:

Strasbourg

0

History repeats itself, 14 years later. By opening the scoring against Strasbourg in the inaugural match of the 2026-2027 Ligue 1 season, Amine Gouiri became the first African player to net the opening goal of the championship since the 2012-2013 season.The Algerian international has thus etched his name into a particularly symbolic statistic in French football.

To find the last time an African scored the very first goal of a Ligue 1 season, you have to go back to August 10, 2012. On that night, Montpellier hosted Toulouse to kick off the 2012-2013 campaign. Senegalese striker Souleymane Camara opened the scoring in the 34th minute, assisted by Nigerian John Utaka. Toulouse eventually equalized through Wissam Ben Yedder in the 72nd minute, resulting in a 1-1 draw. Camara remains officially the first scorer of that season.

Since then, no player with African nationality had managed to replicate this feat in the season's opening match. It would take 14 years and the emergence of Gouiri to see this moment happen again.

Gouiri, a brace to kick off the season

Against Strasbourg, Amine Gouiri made a statement. The Algerian striker found the net first in the 46th minute, then struck again in the 67th to propel OM to a commanding 4-0 victory. Keyliane Abdallah and Pierre-Émile Højbjerg later completed Marseille’s rout.

With this brace, Gouiri kicks off the 2026-2027 campaign with two goals in his first appearance, immediately joining the ranks of the season's leading scorers. Most notably, the Algerian succeeds another African international, Souleymane Camara, in a statistic that had waited over a decade to be renewed.

Nouya M'toama

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Versatile journalist specializing in sports and political news, with extensive experience across radio, print and digital media platforms.

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Marseille

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Ligue 1 France