THE TOP 10 GOALSCORERS IN WORLD FOOTBALL IN 2024: LIVERPOOL TARGET LEVEL WITH MBAPPE…

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are playing their football away from the European spotlight nowadays, but do they still feature among the top goalscorers of 2024?

Not quite. They’ve scored nine and 12 respectively so far this calendar year, and can’t quite match goalscorers from PSG, Lille and Sporting Lisbon.

We’ve identified the top 10 goalscorers (in all competitions) in the world so far in 2024. Any player in a top division in their country is eligible here, so if your mate has scored 97 goals in your regional pub league since the new year — sorry, they don’t count.

10. Adrian Martinez (Racing Club): 15 goals

First things first — we know several other players are on 15 for the calendar year, namely Harry Kane, Cole Palmer, and Salomon Rondon, but they took more games to reach that tally, so Martinez sneaks into the top ten.

The Argentine forward used to be a binman and bricklayer, and spent half a year in jail before turning pro. Not a classic path to the top but, these days, he’s scoring goals for a daft laugh in Argentina’s top flight.

9. Noah Baffoe (Eastern SC): 15 goals

Baffoe has scored a goal per game since the start of 2024, over in the Hong Kong Premier League. Despite the Spaniard’s heroic efforts, Eastern are still only third in the HKPL.

League leaders Lee Man’s star striker Paulinho Simionato has played for 16 clubs in his 13-year career so far. An extremely niche piece of trivia about the Hong Kong Premier League for you, there.

8. Brad Young (The New Saints): 15 goals

Aston Villa fans might recognise Brad Young’s name. The 21-year-old made a single competitive appearance for the Villains in the FA Cup back in 2021.

After a couple of relatively barren loan spells at Carlisle United and Ayr United, Young turned up at The New Saints on a permanent. Since moving to Wales, he literally can’t stop scoring. If he went cold turkey, he’d get sick.

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the Europa League top scorer for every year since 1990?

7. Declan McManus (The New Saints): 15 goals

There’s something in the rarebit/fish & chips over in Llansantffraid/Oswestry. The New Saints have got a Shearer & Sutton, Phillips & Quinn, Yorke & Cole situation going on with McManus and Young.

Got a ring to it, too: McManus & Young.

The Scottish striker scored more league goals than he played league games last season, and he’s continued that ridiculousness in 2024. Might get down Park Hall at the weekend, and that’s not a joke.

6. Luuk de Jong (PSV Eindhoven): 16 goals

De Jong spent the second half of the 2013-14 season on loan at Newcastle. Do you know how many goals he scored? None. Zero. He was the opposite of a bobby dazzler.

Scoring 16 goals so far in 2024 feels like a bit of a p*ss-take. Having said that, six months in the Toon during the highly chaotic Alan Pardew era can do weird things to a person.

5. Imre Badalassi (SP Tre Penne): 16 goals

All we know about Badalassi is that he’s 29 years old and he loves goals. Tre Penne play in the San Marino top flight, and their name means ‘Three Feathers’. They play at the Stadio Fonte dell’Ovo, which we’re pretty sure means the Fountain of the Egg Stadium. We smell a theme.

Remember Maicon? That Maicon. The Inter right-back who had his career publicly ended by Gareth Bale. He played three games for Tre Penne in 2021-22… What?!

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the top scorer from every Champions League season?

4. Jonathan David (Lille): 19 goals

If David is still leading the line for Lille next season, we’ll eat our website.

The 24-year-old Canadian has scored goals upon goals upon goals, season after season, and an even more high-profile club is definitely, 100% going to pry him away from Les Dogues. He’s too good.

3. Martin Cauteruccio (Sporting Cristal): 17 goals

Never heard of him? Cauteruccio is a 37-year-old Uruguayan bagger who is making an absolute mockery of the Peruvian Liga 1. He’s netted 17 goals in just nine games. Proper silly numbers.

Get him to the World Cup in 2026. Make it happen.

2. Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting Lisbon): 20 goals

Everyone knows about Sporting’s prolific Swede, now. His star has risen so far in this past season, he’s in genuine danger of getting the bends.

Every major club in Europe wants to sign Gyokeres – & we can’t blame them.

1. Kylian Mbappe (PSG): 20 goals

Shock.

Kylian makes the top spot by virtue of having scored his 20 goals in fewer games than Gyokeres. We don’t need to tell you Mbappe is the man. The real test for the French baller will be if he continues this sort of form outside of France next season, wherever he may end up.

We think he probably will…

2024-04-23T15:41:24Z dg43tfdfdgfd