The battle for the Golden boot, who will be Europe’s top scorer?
Scoring goals ultimately wins you games, making strikers among the most coveted players in the game. One of the most important recognitions for a striker is the European Golden Boot. This prize is awarded t the top scorer of all the european leagues over the whole season. Past winners include Erling Haaland,Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi,Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez. But who will succeed 2022/2023 winner Erling Haaland and win the Golden Boot 2023/24? Read on to find out!
How does the ranking work
First it is important to explain how the ranking is build up. Not all leagues are made equal, scoring a goal in the Premier League arguably can be significantly harder than scoring a goal in the Scottish Premiership for example. To account for these imbalances the Uefa introduced the competition coefficient system. This system assigns a multiplier for each competition. The points for the Golden Boot ranking then are calculated as follows. Golden Boot Points = #Goals in league * coefficient.
The coefficients can take 3 values: 1,1.5 and 2 and the value for a specific league is based on its position in the Uefa coefficients ranking. The top 5 european leagues(Bundesliga,La Liga, Ligue 1,Premier League, Serie A) all have a factor of 2.. Leagues ranked 6-22, which includes leagues such as the Eredivisie, the Belgian Pro league and the Portuguese Primeira Liga have a coefficient value of 1.5 whereas lower ranked leagues have a coefficient weight of 1.
The race for the 2023/24 golden boot
Below is the top 10 for the Golden Boot 2023/24 as of 27-01-2024
| Rank | Player | Club | League | Goals | Minutes | Factor | Points |
| 1 | Harry Kane | Bayern Munich | Bundesliga | 23 | 1,682 | 2 | 46 |
| 2 | Akor Adams | Lillestrom/Montpellier | Eliteserien/Ligue1 | 22 | 2,867 | 2/1.5 | 40.5 |
| 3 | Kylian Mbappe | Paris Saint Germain | Ligue 1 | 19 | 1,511 | 2 | 38 |
| 4 | Lautaro Martinez | Internazionale | Serie A | 19 | 1,601 | 2 | 38 |
| 5 | Amahl Pellegrino | Bodo Glimt | Eliteserien | 24 | 2,396 | 1.5 | 36 |
| 6 | Serhou Guirassy | VFB Stuttgart | Bundesliga | 17 | 1,058 | 2 | 34 |
| 7 | Vangelis Pavlidis | Az Alkmaar | Eredivisie | 20 | 1,663 | 1.5 | 30 |
| 8 | Santiago Gimenez | Feyenoord | Eredivisie | 19 | 1,564 | 1.5 | 28.5 |
| 9 | Erling Haaland | Manchester City | Premier League | 14 | 1,295 | 2 | 28 |
| 10 | Artem Dovbyk | Girona | La Liga | 14 | 1,344 | 2 | 28 |
Harry Kane’s excellent form at Bayern with 23 goals make him the clear favourite at the moment for the golden shoe. He has quite an extensive lead at the top at the moment and with plenty to play for in the Bundesliga with Bayern it is likely that he will continue his impressive goal scoring form in the the latter stages of the season.
Surprising entries
Some of the more surprising names in the current list include Akor Adams and Amahl Pellegrino, who both have had great seasons in the Norwegian Eliteserien. A small sidenote on this is that the Norwegian has been completed already, adding significant game time for both players to achieve this feat. If we look at goals per minute ratio’s there is a clear winner in Serhou Guirassy. He only featured in 14 games and played 1,058 minutes due to various injuries but still managed to score an impressive amount of 17 goals.
Predicting the winner
There is definitely still a lot to play for in the race of the golden boot for this season. Haaland returning from injury and the likes of Mbappe and Lautaro Martinez continuing their strong form could threaten Harry Kane his claim on the trophy.
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