Euro 2024 - Golden Boot Glory
10 players most likely to be top scorer at the Euros 2024
It is all set for the biggest football event of the year. 24 nations will compete in the EURO, which will take place in 10 cities in Germany from June 14 to July 14.
Every football fan knows that teams win competitions, but most of the time everything depends on the strikers. There are plenty of players who can win the top scorer award, and we put together a list of the top 10 favorites for the prestigious award.
10. Dusan Vlahovic
Dusan Vlahovic is one of the hottest names in European football, as the EURO in Germany may put him among the most desired players on the football market. The Serbian has grown into an elite scorer with Juventus, and Serbia can be the biggest surprise of the competition if he plays on top of his game.
Vlahovic is coming off an impressive season with the team from Turin scoring 16 goals in 33 appearances in Serie A and two goals in five appearances in the Coppa Italia.
Vlahovic arrived at Juventus in 2022 on a €70 million transfer from Fiorentina. He had a strong start with the team scoring after only 30 seconds in his Champions League debut. However, the injuries have slowed down his progress, and even though he has been mentioned in many transfer rumors since then, he is still with Juventus.
He was Serie A's best striker this season and the best young player in the 2020–21 season. Vlahovic made his debut for Serbia in 2020 and has scored 13 goals in 27 appearances so far for his country.
9. Leroy Sane
Leroy Sane has been at the top of European football for a while now, and he will be one of the key players for the host nation at the EURO. Sane has been with Bayern Munich for the last four seasons. In the last one, he had 8 goals and 11 assists in 27 appearances for the Bavarians. In the Champions League, he had two goals and two assists in 12 matches for Bayern.
Sane has won the Bundesliga three times with Bayern Munich and the Premier League twice with Manchester City. Also, he was a part of the German team that won the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2020.
He made his debut for the Germany senior squad in 2015 as a 19-year-old. Sane has played a total of 60 games for Germany, scoring 13 goals so far.
8. Alvaro Morata
Alvaro Morata is one of the most experienced players on the Spanish team and the one who will be their key asset on offense. Morata is coming off a solid season with Atletico Madrid, where he scored 15 goals in 32 appearances in La Liga. He also scored five goals in 10 games in the Champions League and one in five games in the Copa del Rey.
Morata made his debut for Spain in 2014 and is currently tied for fourth place with 35 goals, as many as David Silva. Fernando Torres has scored only three more, and Morata will most likely reach him at the EURO, while David Villa and Raul are far in front.
Morata has been consistently among the top strikers in Europe, playing for some of the best teams on the continent, like Real Madrid, Juventus, Chelsea, and Atletico Madrid. He won La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League twice with Real Madrid, Serie A twice with Juventus, and League Europe with Chelsea in 2019.
7. Kai Havertz
Kai Havertz is still only 24 years old, but he is already the main man in the Germany squad and the one the entire nation leans on at the EURO. Havertz is coming off a solid season with Arsenal scoring 13 goals in 37 appearances for the Gunners. He also scored one goal in 10 appearances in the Champions League.
That was his first season at the Emirates after spending three with Chelsea. He scored a total of 19 goals for the Blues, something that he almost reached in a single season with the city rival.
Havertz made his debut for the Germany senior squad in 2018, being only 19 years old. He immediately showed that he is a player for the future, and this may be the competition where he will show the football world everything he is capable of. He played for Germany in the last EURO and the World Cup and has scored 16 goals in 46 appearances so far.
6. Olivier Giroud
Many consider Olivier Giroud to be too old at the age of 37, but the French striker is still playing like he is in his prime. Giroud scored 15 goals in 35 games in Serie A for AC Milan last season and added a pair in the Champions League and League Europe.
He has already agreed to join Los Angeles FC of the MLS for the next season, but he will have an important role on the French national team at the EURO. Giroud is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the France national team with 57 goals, six more than Thierry Henry. He is third in most appearances with 132, right after Hugo Lloris and Lilian Thuram, and has been a regular in the France squad since 2011.
Giroud won the titles in France with Montpellier in 2011 and in Italy with AC Milan in 2022, as well as the Europa League in 2019 and the Champions League in 2021 with Chelsea.
He won the bronze boot at the 2016 EURO and the 2022 World Cup. He has scored a total of 24 goals in 64 Champions League appearances, 90 in 255 Premier League appearances, and 37 in 91 Serie A appearances.
5. Jude Bellingham - England - 14/1
Jude Bellingham is the main favorite to win the best young player award at the EURO, but the 20-year-old is among those who may be the top scorer of the competition. Bellingham is coming off an impressive season with Real Madrid, proving that he is the next big thing in the football world. He won La Liga and the Champions League, scoring 19 goals in 28 games in the domestic competition and 4 goals in 11 games in the elite one.
Bellingham made one of the biggest transfers in Europe, moving from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid in 2023. He was named the UEFA Champions League Young Player of the Season and was included in the Team of the Season. Among the rest of the awards, he was named La Liga Player of the Season, Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year, and Globe Soccer Awards Emerging Player of the Year.
Bellingham made his debut for the England senior squad in 2020 at the age of 16, and so far he has scored three goals in 29 appearances.
4. Romelu Lukaku - Belgium - 14/1
Romelu Lukaku will play with a chip on his shoulder after he was the main reason why Belgium failed to advance from the group stage at the last FIFA World Cup. Lukaku was injured but was still named to the team. He was given a chance in the last game of the group stage against Canada and missed several scoring opportunities that any average striker would have converted.
Going into the 2024 EURO, Lukaku is not in the best form, but he looks ready enough to help Belgium go deep in the tournament. The 31-year-old scored 13 goals in 32 appearances for Roma in Serie A. He scored seven times in 13 appearances in the Europa League and once in two appearances in the Coppa Italia.
Lukaku is Belgium's all-time leading scorer with 85 goals in 115 appearances. Six of those goals have come at the EURO. He was nominated for the Ballon d'Or in 2021 when he won the Serie A title with Inter and was named Serie A Footballer of the Year. The season before, he was named UEFA Europa League Player of the Season.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal - 12/1
Cristiano Ronaldo is the all-time top goal scorer in the history of the EURO competitions, with 14 goals in 25 games. He spent the last season in the Saudi Pro League, where he scored 35 goals in 31 appearances for Al Nassr, winning the top scorer title in the league. In the Asian Champions League, Ronaldo had six goals in eight matches, and he also scored three times in four games of the King’s Cup.
This was the first season for Ronaldo away from Europe after he decided to accept the millions from the Saudi team. Being 39 years old, he will be the oldest player at the EURO but still among the top favorites to win the top scorer award. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner led Portugal to the EURO title in 2016 and lost in the final in 2004 at home.
He has won the domestic leagues in three different countries, with Manchester United in England, Real Madrid in Spain, and Juventus in Italy. He has won a total of five Champions League trophies, one with the Red Devils and four with Los Blancos. Ronaldo has been the top scorer of the Champions League seven times and was named to the FIFA FIFPRO World 11 in 15 consecutive seasons.
2. Harry Kane - England - 5/1
England is seen as the top favorite to win the title at the 2024 EURO, and Harry Kane is the captain and the top scorer who will need to play on top of his form to finally bring the trophy home. He is England’s all-time top scorer with 63 goals in 91 appearances.
The three-time Premier League top scorer is coming off an excellent individual season with Bayern Munich, his first ever outside England. Kane scored 36 goals in 32 Bundesliga appearances, winning the European Golden Shoe. He was tied for the top scorer in the Champions League, where he hit the net eight times in 12 games. Those performances won him a spot in the best team both in the Bundesliga and the Champions League.
On the international scene, Kane won the top scorer award at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Kane is tied for England’s all-time leading scorer at EURO with the 11 goals he scored in the last two competitions. Gary Neville has also scored 11 goals, but in three European competitions. There is no doubt that Kane will sit alone on top of this list after this competition, and he has a legitimate chance of winning the top scorer award. Kane is regularly taking the penalties for England, and he is constantly aggressive in the offense, with the entire team trying to create scoring opportunities for him.
1. Kylian Mbappé - France - 9/2
Kylian Mbappé is the hottest name in the world of football at the moment, as he is moving from PSG to Real Madrid after six seasons spent in the French capital. He is coming off a fantastic season, with the Ligue 1 champion scoring 27 goals in 29 appearances and winning the award for the top scorer for the sixth consecutive year. In the Champions League, he scored eight goals in 12 games, which made him tied for the best scorer in the elite competition this season. He also scored eight goals in six France Cup appearances.
Mbappé is still only 25 years old but has a huge international appearance. He was France's best player at the 2018 World Cup, when France won the trophy for the second time in their history. At the last World Cup in Qatar, Mbappé was the top scorer in the tournament with eight goals, and there is no doubt that he is the favorite to win the same award at the 2024 EURO. France is among the top three favorites to win the title and a lot will depend on Mbappé’s scoring form.
A fun fact is that Mbappé failed to score in the previous EURO in four appearances for France, which is an additional motive for him to perform well in Germany. He has scored a total of 47 goals in 78 games for the France national team, and he will most likely go way over the 50-goal milestone at the EURO. He is currently ranked third all-time for France.