Pierre-Emerick Emiliano François Aubameyang (born 18 June 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Deportivo A Coruña. Born in France, he played for the Gabon national team. Considered one of the best strikers of his generation, Aubameyang has scored over 400 goals in his career, is the all-time top scorer in the UEFA Europa League (34), and has the most goals in Europe's top five leagues for an African player, with over 250. He is also the highest-scoring African player in the history of the Bundesliga.
Aubameyang began his senior club career after signing for AC Milan in Italy, but never made an appearance for the club, instead spending several loan spells in France. He transferred permanently to Saint-Étienne in 2011, where he won the 2012–13 Coupe de la Ligue. In summer 2013, he joined Borussia Dortmund, scoring 141 goals in four-and-a-half seasons. While in Germany, he collected the VDV Silver Boot, the Bundesliga's top goalscorer award, and won the DFB-Pokal. His 31 goals in the 2016–17 campaign also made him the first player in 40 years to score 30 goals in a Bundesliga season.
In 2018, Aubameyang joined Arsenal for a then-club record fee of £56 million (€60 million). He went on to captain the club, helping them reach the 2019 Europa League final and win the FA Cup in 2020. Individually, he was awarded the Premier League Golden Boot in 2018–19 and was named in the 2020 PFA Team of the Year. After leaving Arsenal in 2022, he had spells with Barcelona and Chelsea before joining Marseille in 2023, where he was named in the Ligue 1 Team of the Year, while his performances in the Europa League earned him the competition's Player of the Season award. In 2024, he joined Saudi Pro League club Al-Qadsiah, spending one season there before returning to Marseille in 2025. After one season in France, he subsequently returned to Spain, joining Deportivo A Coruña.
After playing once for the France under-21 team, Aubameyang switched to represent Gabon at international level, making his senior debut in 2009 at the age of 19; with 40 goals, he is the nation's all-time top scorer. He represented Gabon at six Africa Cup of Nations tournaments and the 2012 Summer Olympics. In 2015, he was named African Footballer of the Year; the first Gabonese and second European-born player to win the award.
Aubameyang joined AC Milan's youth academy in January 2007. In August, he was part of the squad that finished fourth in the inaugural Champions Youth Cup held in Malaysia, where he made a name for himself and attracted the attention of scouts internationally. He scored against every opponent Milan played, finishing with seven goals in six matches.
For the 2008–09 season, Aubameyang was loaned out to Dijon of Ligue 2 in France to gain first-team experience. His performances there led him to appear in World Soccer's Talent Scout section in the summer of 2009. He finished with a total of ten goals and two assists in all competitions, including two goals in a Coupe de France tie against Selongey.
On 24 June 2009, it was announced Ligue 1 club Lille had decided to sign Aubameyang on loan. Relative to his previous season, however, Aubameyang did not perform as well, scoring just two goals in 14 appearances, four as a starter.
2010–11: Loans to Monaco and Saint-Étienne
For the 2010–11 season, Aubameyang was loaned for the season to Monaco. On 21 August 2010, he scored his first goal for Monaco in an away match against Lens, then scored again on 29 August at home to Auxerre, where Monaco won 2–0. In January 2011, after six months with the club, Aubameyang was loaned to Saint-Étienne until the end of the 2010–11 season, finishing the season with four goals and three assists. In July 2011, the loan was extended for the entire 2011–12 season.
On 22 December 2011, Aubameyang signed with Saint-Étienne on a permanent deal. He was quickly added to the starting lineup and was given the number 7 jersey. In February 2012, he scored his first hat-trick against Lorient. He became an integral part of the squad, scoring half of the team's away goals during the season, and went on to be Ligue 1's 4th top scorer having scored 16 goals behind Montpellier's Olivier Giroud with 21, PSG's Nenê with 21 too and Lille's Eden Hazard with 20.
On 20 April 2013, Aubameyang was in the starting line-up for Saint-Étienne in the 2013 Coupe de la Ligue Final. Les Verts won the match 1–0 with a goal from Brandão to give Aubameyang his first major trophy as a professional footballer. He finished the season with 18 goals and seven assists in all competitions.
In the 2012–13 season, Aubameyang ended second in the competition's top-goalscorers list, scoring 19 goals and finishing behind only Zlatan Ibrahimović. From his 37 appearances, he also provided eight assists. The season was widely regarded as his breakout year—he appeared in the Ligue 1 team of the season and he won the Ligue 1 African Player of the Year award.
On 4 July 2013, Aubameyang joined 2012–13 Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund on a five-year contract. He made his competitive debut for his new club on 27 July 2013 against Bayern Munich in the DFL-Supercup, replacing Jakub Błaszczykowski for the last 18 minutes of Dortmund's 4–2 victory, assisting Dortmund's final goal, scored by Marco Reus. On 10 August, Aubameyang made his Bundesliga debut and scored a hat-trick against FC Augsburg, including a goal from his first shot in the league. In the process, Aubameyang also became the first Gabonese player to appear in the Bundesliga. On 27 November, he scored his first Champions League goal in a 3–1 win against Napoli in the group stage of the 2013–14 competition. He later took a penalty against 1860 Munich that propelled Dortmund into the next round of the 2013–14 DFB-Pokal, finishing the year with 13 league goals and 16 goals in all competitions.
On 13 August 2014, Aubameyang assisted Borussia Dortmund's first goal and scored the second goal in a 2–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the DFL-Supercup. After scoring the goal, he celebrated by putting on a Spider-Man mask. In Dortmund's next match, a 4–1 win over Stuttgarter Kickers in the first round of the DFB-Pokal, Aubameyang scored two second-half goals and provided the assist for Adrián Ramos' goal. On 13 September, Aubameyang scored his first Bundesliga goal of the season, netting Dortmund's final goal of their 3–1 win over SC Freiburg. Three days later, Aubameyang scored Dortmund's second goal in a 2–0 win over future club Arsenal in the first group match of the Champions League.
Aubameyang ended his second season in Dortmund with 25 goals from 46 appearances, including one in the 2015 DFB-Pokal Final, where Dortmund were defeated 3–1 by VfL Wolfsburg at the Olympiastadion.
On 31 July 2015, Aubameyang signed a new contract to last until 2020, saying, "Every part of me wants to be here and I have never wanted to leave." On 20 August, he scored a brace as Dortmund came from 0–3 down to win 3–4 at Odds BK in the first leg of their Europa League play-off. By scoring in Dortmund's 1–1 draw with 1899 Hoffenheim on 23 September, Aubameyang became the first player in Bundesliga history to score in each of his team's opening six matches of a season. He later extended this record to eight matches, scoring in the team's next two fixtures against Darmstadt 98 and Bayern Munich, before failing to score for the first time in the Bundesliga season in a 2–0 win at Mainz 05.
On 22 October, Aubameyang scored a hat-trick in a UEFA Europa League match against Gabala of Azerbaijan. Three days later, he scored another hat-trick in a 5–1 defeat of Augsburg at the Westfalenstadion. On 8 November, Aubameyang scored the winning goal for Dortmund in a 3–2 Revierderby victory over rivals Schalke 04. At the halfway stage of the Bundesliga season, Aubameyang was the league's top scorer with 18 goals from 17 appearances.
On 30 January 2016, Aubameyang scored his 19th and 20th league goals of the season to give Dortmund a 2–0 home victory over Ingolstadt 04. Aubameyang reached 30 goals in all competitions in a 3–1 victory over VfB Stuttgart in the quarter-final of the 2015–16 DFB-Pokal. In addition to scoring himself, he assisted the side's other two goals scored by Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. On 10 March 2016, Aubameyang scored for Borussia in their 3–0 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Europa League Round of 16 first-leg. A week later, he scored both goals in the 2–1 second-leg victory at White Hart Lane, taking him to 35 goals for the season. In scoring two goals in a 5–1 win against VfL Wolfsburg on 30 April, Aubameyang reached 25 goals in the Bundesliga season, thus ending as the league's second-top scorer behind Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich.