Man City slayer Viktor Gyokeres now has 48 goals in 2024 as Haaland stuck on 34
Erling Haaland scored 44 goals last year and that kept him clear of the competition despite playing no football in the final weeks of 2023.
He ended 2023 one goal ahead of Harry Kane and one more ahead of Kylian Mbappe, and that trio was expected to dominate 2024 again for Manchester City, Bayern Munich and PSG/Real Madrid.
The criteria: All club goals in all competitions for clubs in Europe’s top 10 leagues.
10) Krzysztof Piatek (Istanbul Basaksehir) – 23 goals
Behind only Ciro Immobile and Edin Dzeko in the race for the 2024/25 Turkish Super Lig Golden Boot, which is on brand for that wonderfully eclectic division.
9) Cole Palmer (Chelsea) – 24 goals
Even without any European football stat-padding, Palmer has proven a goalscoring force. Three Premier League hat-tricks in 2024 include a couple of four-goal hauls and he is in the top ten for assists this year too.
8) Luuk de Jong (PSV Eindhoven) – 27 goals
PSV dropped 11 points in the entirety of the Eredivisie season and De Jong’s form – at the age of 33 – was a major factor. Twenty-nine goals and 15 assists in a league season is fire. Started the new season with two goals in the Dutch equivalent of the Community Shield and finally netted in his third league appearance. And then again in his fifth. And sixth. And seventh. And eighth.
7) Vinicius Jnr (Real Madrid) – 30 goals
One hat-trick helped beat Barcelona in January’s Supercopa de Espana while another helped break Borussia Dortmund in October ahead of losing the Ballon d’Or vote. Which he took incredibly well. He kickstarted his bid for the 2025 award with another treble against Osasuna.
6) Kylian Mbappe (PSG/Real Madrid) – 31 goals
Being drawn against a side in the sixth tier of French football is handy when you want to make a quick start to the new year. Mbappe scored a hat-trick in a 9-0 win before adding two more goals v a third-tier side. But he failed to turn up twice v Borussia Dortmund as PSG wimped out of the Champions League semi-finals.
Started life for Real Madrid with a Super Cup goal and has now scored eight in 16 for his Spanish club, which feels kind of underwhelming.
5) Jonathan David (Lille) – 32 goals
There was a Coupe de France hat-trick to kick of 2024 but since then there has been an avalanche of Ligue Un goals. It’s actually astonishing that he was not targeted more aggressively for a summer transfer. Has already scored 13 times this season as started early with Champions League qualification and then progressed to beating Actual Real Madrid and Actual Atletico Madrid.
4) Erling Haaland (Manchester City) – 34 goals
Not bad for a League Two-standard player. And any talk of him being a flat-track bully should be silenced by a two-goal salvo v Spurs that pretty much won Man City the title. Then he started the new season with two hat-tricks and 10 goals in total in his first five games. Which is all quite mad. Though he was kept out by Newcastle, Fulham, Wolves and Bournemouth. But not Sparta Prague, Southampton or Brighton. And then missed a penalty v Sporting as Viktor Gyokeres thrived.
3) Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) – 36 goals
There’s life in the old dog yet. He’s still starting (and scoring) for Barcelona at the grand old age of 35. A first hat-trick of the season came against Alaves and he babysat the academy kids to a Real Madrid thrashing. Five in three in the Champions League now as Barca are resurgent.
2) Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) – 36 goals
He scored the most goals of any player in their debut Bundesliga campaign. And indeed the most goals he himself has ever scored in a single campaign, with 44. But he still ended the season without a trophy and that will never not be funny. Has scored 17 goals in 16 games this season to a German chorus of ‘but is he holding Bayern back?’.
1) Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting) – 48 goals
The former Coventry man scored 29 league goals as Sporting cruised towards the Portuguese title. And he has casually started the new season with 16 goals in his first ten league games of 2024/25, either side of scoring in two of his first three Champions League games. It is actually astonishing that the top scorer of 2024 was not the subject of a summer transfer. Now he’s added a hat-trick against Manchester City, he’s definitely too good for Man Utd.
