Haaland, Mbappe, Salah and Kane no match for 52-goal Gyokeres in 2024 top scorers chart
Erling Haaland scored 44 goals in 2023 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. They did not bargain for Viktor Gyokeres.
The criteria: All club goals in all competitions for clubs in Europe’s top 10 leagues.
10) Cole Palmer (Chelsea) – 29 goals
Even without any European football stat-padding, Palmer has proven a goalscoring force. Three Premier League hat-tricks in 2024 included a couple of four-goal hauls.
9) Mo Salah (Liverpool) – 29 goals
A really quite ridiculous season so far has powered Liverpool to the top of two tables and Salah to the head of the Golden Boot queue, as well as pretty damn high in terms of assists in 2024 too. Is he the best winger the Premier League has ever seen?
8) Vinicius Jnr (Real Madrid) – 31 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.
7) Krzysztof Piatek (Basaksehir) – 32 goals
It really helps if you have to play about 427 games in the Conference League before the season proper even begins.
6) Jonathan David (Lille) – 36 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 17 times this season as started early with Champions League qualification and then progressed to beating Actual Real Madrid and Actual Atletico Madrid.
5) Kylian Mbappe (PSG/Real Madrid) – 36 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 14 in 24 for his Spanish club, which feels kind of underwhelming. He was truly rotten v Liverpool.
4) Erling Haaland (Manchester City) – 38 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 but has been followed by the toughest spell of his City career. Since that 10-goal blast in the first month of the season he’s scored only four further league goals. He’s still scored 19 goals in 26 games this season but Manchester City are in crisis, which is really not helping his form.
3) Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) – 39 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 20 goals in 19 games this season to a German chorus of ‘but is he holding Bayern back?’.
After a week in which his England place was once again questioned, he scored a hat-trick v Augsburg. But then drew blanks v PSG and Borussia Dortmund. Then got injured in the final weeks of 2024, but still had enough of a cushion to secure a top-three finish. Worra trophy etc. etc. etc.
2) Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) – 40 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. Seven Champions League goals are in the book as Barca cruise through the table stage.
1) Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting) – 52 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 18 goals in his first 14 league games of 2024/25, and five in six in the Champions League. 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.
He drew a blank against Arsenal and then Santa Clara after the exit of Ruben Amorim, but soon returned to form with three goals in four games.
