The 2023-24 season is the first in 20 years that doesn’t feature either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in one of Europe’s major leagues.
Those two names dominated the scoring charts across Europe for almost two entire decades, notching almost a thousand league goals combined and lifting no fewer than 10 European Golden Shoe awards.
But we’ve now arrived at a new era and some familiar names have already made a strong start in the opening couple of months of the 2023-24 campaign. We’ve taken a look at the top 10 goalscorers across Europe’s big five leagues – Ligue 1, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and the Premier League.
Note: if two players are tied on goals, we’ve ordered them by their goals-per-minute ratio. Leroy Sane, Mostafa Mohamed, Takefusa Kubo, Robert Lewandowski, Victor Osimhen, Jarrod Bowen and Akor Adams all miss out on cracking this top 10 due to their inferior goals-per-minute ratio so far.
10. Alvaro Morata – 5
It’s felt like Morata has spent his entire career on the cusp of bursting into life and realising his potential as a prolific goalscorer.
We need to wait and see whether 2023-24 is finally his year, but the 30-year-old is averaging a La Liga goal every 66 minutes so far. He scored a brace in a 3-1 victory over Real Madrid and on top of that notched a hat-trick for Spain over the last international break.
9. Jude Bellingham – 6
The England international scored in his first four La Liga appearances for Real Madrid and his contributions have been absolutely vital in Carlo Ancelotti’s side sitting pretty at the top of the table.
Bellingham failed to keep that run going as Madrid came from behind to beat Real Sociedad 2-1, but he’s continued to be one of their standout individuals.
He only turned 20 and already he looks like a leader at the heart of Los Blancos’ midfield. Ridiculous.
8. Son Heung-min – 6
While undoubtedly one of Tottenham’s greatest players of the modern era, last season was far from Son’s best – it took him until March to score his sis sixth league goal of the campaign and ended it on just 10 league goals, his worst return at the club.
Like several others in the Tottenham team, the South Korean looks like a player reinvigorated under Ange Postecoglou. New signing James Maddison has made a fine start at replace the No.10-style playmaking aspect of Harry Kane’s old game, while Son is making a decent stab at the goals.
Only a certain Norwegian has scored more Premier League goals this season than Son.
7. Victor Boniface – 6
Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen are looking the real deal in challenging Bayern for the Bundesliga title this season and their star striker Boniface is the early frontrunner for 2023-24’s breakout star.
The 22-year-old Nigerian signed from Belgian side Union SG for a reported fee of just €20million in the summer. He’s arguably already worth several times that, having scored six goals in his first six Bundesliga appearances.
6. Jonas Wind – 7
The forward only scored six Bundesliga goals for Wolfsburg last term but he’s already beaten that tally this season.
Wind has kicked off the 2023-24 campaign in sensational style with almost all of Wolfsburg’s goals so far – seven of their nine, 78%, the highest proportion for any club in Europe this season.
He kicked off the campaign by notching back-to-back braces in wins over Heidemheim and Koln and has continued banging in the goals ever since. The 24-year-old Dane could be one to watch this season.
5. Kylian Mbappe – 7
Having registered a respectable average of 24 league goals a season for PSG since arriving from Monaco back in 2017, Mbappe has surprisingly only broken the 30-goal mark once (33 back in 2018-19) and is yet to claim a European Golden Shoe.
But Haaland has serious competition if he wants to retain the accolade from last season.
Now that Messi and Neymar have left, this season is Mbappe’s first in which he’s undoubtedly the main man at the Parc des Princes. Having scored seven goals in just six appearances that total 431 minutes, we have a feeling that this could be the year his numbers go truly stratospheric.
4. Erling Haaland – 8
The least surprising entry in the top 10, Haaland often hasn’t looked at his very best in 2023-24 but he remains absolutely devastating if given a sniff in the penalty area.
The Norwegian will surely claim the Premier League’s Golden Boot again, having already established a healthy lead in the top scorers chart with eight goals in seven appearances for Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions.
3. Harry Kane – 8
The England captain has made a sensational start to life in Germany.
It was only a couple of years back that Robert Lewandowski broke Gerd Muller’s long-held record of 40 league goals in a Bundesliga season, but Kane might genuinely be in with a shout of challenging that in his debut season.
2. Lautaro Martinez – 9
The Argentinian World Cup winner began the 2023-24 campaign by scoring both of Inter’s goals in a routine 2-0 win over Monza and added a third as Simone Inzaghi’s Nerazzurri went to Cagliari and won by the same scoreline.
He then scored twice against Fiorentina and surprisingly didn’t notch in the 5-1 Derby della Madonnina victory over AC Milan but was a menace throughout. A move to bring Romelu Lukaku back to the San Siro broke down after his flirtations with Juventus, but now it appears that Martinez is ready to be their out-and-out talisman up top.
Martinez underlined his status as one of Europe’s most in-form marksmen with a spellbinding four-goal, 35-minute cameo against Salernitana. Absolutely outrageous.
1. Serhou Guirassy – 10
A relatively lesser-known name, Guirassy signed for Stuttgart this summer after impressing there on loan from Rennes last season. He’s since taken his game to another level as surprise package Stuttgart have punched well above their weight to sit second in the Bundesliga table, one point ahead of Bayern Munich.
The 27-year-old Guinea international averaged a goal every other game in the German top flight last term and he’s bettering that ratio in 2023-24 so far with 10 goals in just six games, notching in almost every outing so far.
Source
Planet Football
