European Golden Shoe 2022/23: Mbappe charge continues as Haaland leads

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The race to be crowned European Golden Shoe winner for 2022/23 is nearing its conclusion.

Robert Lewandowski won the last two editions of the award and came into the campaign seeking to match Lionel Messi (2016-2019) by winning three in a row.

He scored 35 goals for Bayern Munich last season to give him 70 Golden Shoe points and a comfortable European golden boot victory that rarely looked in doubt.

However, having won the last two awards for Bayern, it is Barcelona who Lewandowski is representing this season after his high-profile transfer to La Liga.

One of his main rivals last year, Karim Benzema, is on the other side of the Clasico divide with Real Madrid and their battle will now be even more intriguing with both star strikers playing in Spain’s top flight.

Kylian Mbappe came into the new season as the other most likely contender.

The PSG sensation came second last season with 28 goals in Ligue 1 and will push to make an even stronger challenge in 2022/23

In the Premier League, Erling Haaland moved to Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund in a huge transfer and was immediately installed as favourite to top the English goalscoring charts.

Haaland has impressed and is looking to challenge to score the most goals in Europe for 2022/23 with his new team, with Mohamed Salah – a prolific scorer for Liverpool – another big name to watch in England’s top flight along with Tottenham’s Harry Kane.

Premier League top scorers 2022/23: Latest Golden Boot standings

Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were not to be ignored either, given that duo have regularly dominated these standings in years gone by – though the latter ended up leaving Man Utd in November.

European Assists King 2022/23: Who leads this season’s creative standings?

Surprise contenders have often emerged in the past as well, with former Golden Shoe winner Ciro Immobile now a regular challenger given his remarkable goalscoring consistency for Lazio.

This page will be updated throughout the 2022/23 season with regular updates on the European Golden Shoe standings.

2022/23 EUROPEAN GOLDEN SHOE STANDINGS

Erling Haaland leads the race to win the European Golden Shoe title, while Kylian Mbappe was among the players to rise in the standings this week.

While Harry Kane, Victor Osimhen and Mbappe have emerged as his main rivals in the standings, Manchester City striker Haaland looks to have built a commanding advantage.

Haaland has enjoyed an incredible spell, scoring eight goals in two games against RB Leipzig and Burnley, although both matches were not in the Premier League, meaning they did not boost his Golden Shoe lead.

But he did boost his points total to 64 when he reached 32 Premier League goals for the season in the 3-1 win over Leicester City, having also scored against Southampton after being out injured for Man City’s impressive win over Liverpool.

Haaland was on target with a late penalty as his team defeated Crystal Palace recently, while he has also managed to score a crucial goal against title rivals Arsenal, with his side earning a 3-1 away triumph, as well as strike in a convincing win for Man City at Bournemouth.

It was FA Cup duty for Haaland on Saturday but he remains in a strong position this season after being boosted by his hat-trick against Wolves on January 22, with that treble and his recent Champions League and cup exploits abolishing any talk of a quiet period in front of goal.

Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski’s dreams of a third straight success are beginning to fade, and the rest of the group of elite forwards chasing Haaland, which includes Osimhen, Kane and Mbappe, also have a tough task to catch him now.

Man City forward Haaland tops the European golden boot standings with an incredible 32 goals in the Premier League, which is comfortably the highest total in all of Europe’s five major divisions.

Haaland has scored four hat-tricks since moving to England from Dortmund, including a treble as his side thrashed rivals Man Utd 6-3 in the first Manchester derby of the season.

He made history by becoming the first Premier League player ever to score 20 goals before January and has built a big lead at the top of the European Golden Boot standings.

By January 22, he had already racked up more goals than Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min (both 23) managed across the full previous season to win the EPL Golden Boot for 2021/22.

The goal against Bournemouth last month means he has already beaten the record held by Sergio Aguero (26) for most goals by a Man City player in a Premier League season.

And in reaching 30 goals for the EPL campaign at Southampton, Haaland has ensured his goalscoring campaign will always sit in elite company, with the competition’s single season record of 34 now in his sights.

Haaland is on course for a record-breaking season if he remains free of any prolonged injury absences.

Despite Haaland’s sensational campaign, though, there are multiple other top forwards who are well into double figures for goals, meaning a triumph for the Man City man has not always been a foregone conclusion.

Tottenham forward Kane is also in the running, scoring six times in his last six games in the Premier League to move up to 24 strikes, the sixth time he has reached or passed the 20-goal top-flight milestone.

He is now Tottenham’s all-time record goalscorer, and has remained consistent in front of goal despite a turbulent period for Spurs that saw manager Antonio Conte depart and his side thrashed 6-1 by Newcastle.

Napoli star Osimhen is in the group of high-profile players involved in the battle to score the most goals in Europe for 2022/23.

Osimhen (21 goals and 42 Golden Shoe points) has surged clear as the top scorer in Serie A and now sits in fourth place overall in the European Golden Shoe rankings.

As part of a remarkable season for the Nigeria forward, he has scored 12 goals in his last 13 Serie A appearances.

While two recent games against Lazio and Atalanta were his first league outings for two months where he did not find the net, he promptly got back on track with two goals as Napoli thrashed Torino 4-0.

Osimhen then spent around three weeks out injured, damaging his hopes of catching Man City star Haaland, but has now returned to action and will be eyeing a fast finish as Napoli chase the Scudetto.

Paris Saint-Germain attacker Mbappe is also in the chasing pack.

He has moved on to 22 Ligue 1 goals – moving one ahead of Osimhen in the Golden Shoe race – with a sublime run of form.

Mbappe scored a double in PSG’s incredible 4-3 victory over Lille and add another two goals against rivals Marseille before wrapping up the recent win over Nantes with a late goal. He added another goal in the 2-1 win over Brest as PSG grabbed a last-gasp win.

The strike against Nantes on March 4 made Mbappe PSG’s all-time record goalscorer.

Then came three straight poor outings without a goal either side of the international break as PSG lost to Rennes and Lyon before beating Nice.

But a goal and an assist against Lens got him back on track and on to 20 league goals for the fourth time in five seasons. Two goals in the 2-1 win over Angers on Friday then continued his fine run.

It has been an up-and-down campaign for Mbappe, who had also been frustrated after failing to score in each of his three top-flight matches in January, had an injury that briefly kept him out of action and suffered Champions League disappointment.

Nonetheless, Mbappe looks primed to once again to post another strong Golden Shoe performance in 2022/23.

Barca forward Lewandowski has netted 17 times in La Liga from 26 appearances (25 starts).

But he has only scored four times in his last 14 top-flight outings for Barca and has missed time through suspension and injuries this season, hindering his hopes.

So it now looks almost impossible for Lewandowski to make up ground on rampant Man City forward Haaland.

He is two goals ahead of Man Utd star Marcus Rashford, who has 30 Golden Shoe points to sit behind Haaland, Kane and Ivan Toney in the Premier League scoring charts.

Osimhen, meanwhile, faces a challenge in Italy from in-form Inter striker Lautaro Martinez, who has reached 15 goals.

The Bundesliga goalscoring charts are topped by Niclas Fullkrug, who has 16 goals to his name in Germany.

And each member of PSG’s star strike-force has been faring well in the 2022/23 Golden Shoe race.

PSG stars Lionel Messi and Neymar are on 15 and 13 league goals respectively for the season so far.

Messi has produced a fantastic season, showing fine form for PSG either side of his World Cup win.

The Argentina star has 15 top-flight goals, as well as 15 assists. He scored a fine free-kick in PSG’s 2-1 win over Nice at the start of October and netted against the same opponents, as well as getting an assist, in a 2-0 win on Saturday April 8.

His return to the pitch with PSG after his exploits in Qatar was a goalscoring one as his team won against Angers.

Messi has eight goals since the World Cup. He scored in recent clashes with Montpellier, Toulouse, Lille, Nantes, Nice and Lens, while also starring against Marseille on February 26 with one goal and two assists.

Neymar also enjoyed a prolific campaign which included a strike against Reims and two goal involvements – a goal and assist – against Lille, but another ankle injury has now ruled him out for the rest of the season.

Monaco’s Wissam Ben Yedder is also near the top of the standings in the Golden Shoe charts with 17 Ligue 1 goals, putting him in the mix with the likes of Mbappe, Neymar, Lille attacker Jonathan David, Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette and Terem Moffi in a competitive golden boot battle in France.

There are an incredible 18 players in the French top-flight who have hit double figures already, a list topped by Mbappe (22 goals), David (21 goals), Lacazette (20 goals) Folarin Balogun (18 goals) and Ben Yedder (17 goals).

Not all of the pre-season contenders are still holding out hope of catching Haaland in the Golden Shoe standings.

Mohamed Salah is further down the standings than normal, as he only has 16 Premier League goals so far for Liverpool. However, the attacker’s form has picked up of late. He was superb in the Reds’ famous 7-0 win over Manchester United, scoring twice, and has four goals in his last three EPL matches.

In the group of players on 14 goals and 28 Golden Shoe points you find Real Madrid great Karim Benzema, whose cause this season has not been helped by some ill-timed injury absences.

But Benzema scored a double against Real Valladolid on December 30, suggesting he could be set for a big second half of the season, a sentiment boosted when he struck again in games with Villarreal and Athletic Bilbao, before netting two penalties against Elche.

Benzema then grabbed a hat-trick as Real Madrid thrashed Valladolid 6-0, only to then go three straight La Liga matches without a goal.

Lazio’s Ciro Immobile has just 10 strikes to his name this season after a quiet start to 2023 which has only seen him score four times in Serie A.

Romelu Lukaku, after returning to Inter, and Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic, were among the notable Serie A candidates as the Italian campaign began, but Osimhen, Martinez, Ademola Lookman, M’Bala Zola, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Rafael Leao are the only players to have reached 12 goals.

Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, only scored once in the Premier League this season, and that strike at Everton on October 9 was his sole goal in domestic action for Man Utd before his departure.

Haaland will hope to move closer to the EPL record when Man City play at home to title rivals Arsenal in the Premier League Wednesday April 26.

PSG and Mbappe are scheduled to host Lorient on Saturday April 30, while Barcelona are away to Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday before hosting Real Betis three days later.

For the time being our table below tracking the European Golden Shoe standings will only list players from the top five European leagues, where the winner is most likely to emerge from.

Players from outside the top five leagues in Europe are eligible to win the Golden Shoe, but the winner has not come from one of those divisions since 2002.

 

 

 

source:Football Transfer News