At 36 years of age, few people could have expected Robert Lewandowski to continue competing with the top European forwards for the highest number of goals. But the Barcelona ace is once again playing at his best under the coach who brought out the best version of him at Bayern Munich.
As things stand, the Pole already has four goals to his name in La Liga after four games, which puts him one goal ahead of Raphinha, who has three goals to his name after his hat-trick in the match against Real Valladolid.
With his goals in the early phase of this season, Lewandowski is once again emerging as one of the candidates to win the Golden Boot award this season. However, as Mundo Deportivo has noted, other possible competitors of the Polish striker are also having a strong start to this season with their respective teams.
The top scorer in the top five European leagues currently is the Norwegian striker Erling Haaland. The Manchester City forward has already scored seven goals in three Premier League appearances and is thus leading the charge to win another Golden Boot award after winning it in the 2022-23 season with his 36 goals.
Closely following the Manchester City forward is the Swede Viktor Gyokeres, who also has seven goals to his name, but has scored these goals in four games. Furthermore, he also faces the handicap of his goal being multiplied by 1.5 instead of 2 as he plays in Portugal for Sporting CP.
The French side Rennes have two strikers, Henrik Meister and Albert Gronbaek, in the Golden Boot shortlist. However, both these strikers scored most of their goals in the Norwegian league before joining Rennes, and thus are expected to fall lower in the Golden Boot rankings as the season progresses. The top scorer in Ligue 1 currently is Mason Greenwood, who has five goals with Olympique de Marseille.
Another player in La Liga is also ahead of Lewandowski in the Golden Boot rankings, the Villarreal forward Thierno Barry. He scored five goals for Basel before joining the Spanish side this summer.
Andrej Kramaric, Marcus Thuram, and Bradley Barcola all have the same number of goals as Robert Lewandowski, they all of them needed fewer games than the Pole to score four goals.
Muhammad Salah and Luis Diaz have three goals to their names in the Premier League but have also played only three goals, thus having the same scoring rate as Lewandowski. This is also the case for the Atalanta striker Mateo Retegui in Serie A.
Kylian Mbappe, who has never won the Golden Boot in his career, opened his scoring account in La Liga last night, as he scored a brace against Real Betis. He will also be looking to start firing on all cylinders as soon as possible to get his hands on this trophy as well.
The race for the 2024/25 Golden Boot:
- Erling Haaland (Manchester City): 7 goals in 3 games (x2) – 14 points
- Henrik Meister (Sarpsborg 08/Rennes): 8 goals in 18 games (x1.5) + 1 goal in 3 games (x2) – 14 points
- Albert Gronbaek (Bodo Glimt/Rennes): 8 goals in 15 games (x1.5) – 12 points
- Albert Gronbaek (Bodo Glimt/Rennes): 8 goals in 15 games (x1.5) – 12 points
- Viktor Gyökeres (Sporting CP): 7 goals in 4 games (x1.5) – 10.5 points
- Mason Greenwood (O. Marseille): 5 goals in 3 games (x2) – 10 points
- Thierno Barry (Basel/Villarreal): 5 goals in 3 games (x1.5) + 1 goal in 3 games (x2) – 9.5 points
- Andrej Kramaric (Hoffenheim): 4 goals in 2 games (x2) – 8 points
- Marcus Thuram (Inter Milan): 4 goals in 3 games (x2) – 8 points
- Bradley Barcola (PSG): 4 goals in 3 games (x2) – 8 points
- Robert Lewandowski (Barça): 4 goals in 4 games (x2) – 8 points
- Mohamed Salah (Liverpool): 3 goals in 3 games (x2) – 6 points
- Luis Díaz (Liverpool): 3 goals in 3 games (x2) – 6 points
- Mateo Retegui (Atalanta): 3 goals in 3 games (x2) – 6 points
