It may still be early in the season, but Harry Kane’s start at Bayern Munich gives him a great start to becoming only the second Golden Boot winner in Europe.
The European Golden Boot is awarded to the top goalscorer in any of Europe’s top flights in a season – but there’s a caveat.
Goals are weighted, so players in Europe’s top five leagues see their goals count double, leagues ranked sixth to 22nd count 1.5 times, and goals from players in the lower divisions only count once.
So, in theory, a League of Ireland or Estonian Meistriliiga player could win it, although he would have to score around 70 or 80 goals.
The only English player to win it before was Sunderland’s Kevin Phillips in 1999-2000. At the bottom of this piece is a quiz to see if you can name the other winners since then.
But first we look at where Kane stands and who his main opponents are this season.
How is Kane doing?
Kane is the front runner of the European Golden Boot race.
After scoring the only goal in Friday’s win at Cologne, Bayern’s summer signing from Tottenham Hotspur has scored 18 goals in his first 12 Bundesliga games, something no player has accomplished before.
Remarkably, he would have already won last season’s Bundesliga golden boot with this set. Niclas Fullkrug and Christopher Nkunku shared the 2022-23 top scorer trophy with 16 goals each.
If Kane were to continue this scoring streak, however unlikely, he would end the season with 51 goals.
The Bundesliga record for goals in a season is Robert Lewandowski’s 41, which was not achieved until 2021.
Kane was never close to the Golden Boot again. His best 30-goal season would not have won the award since 2007.
Who is leading the Golden Boot race?
Kane topped the European Golden Boot race on Friday. You probably won’t guess who he has passed.
There’s something we haven’t mentioned yet, you see. The competition includes 2023 summer leagues.
Amahl Pellegrino, an uncapped 33-year-old, has scored 23 goals in 27 games for Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt this season.
With goals in that league multiplied by 1.5, he has 34.5 points. Kane is 36 now. But Pellegrino’s side only have five games to play this season – so he will be overtaken by other players very soon.
Achor Adams has been cited in some places as top scorer, but BBC Sport has confirmed that not all of his goals count.
The Nigerian scored 15 goals in 15 games for Lillestrom in Norway’s top flight… and then moved to French side Montpellier, where he has scored a further seven in 11 games.
That would put him top with 36.5 points, but European Sports Media, who run the award, don’t count goals from a winter and summer league together – so only his Montpellier goals are taken into account.
Who are Kane’s rivals?
The closest player to Kane (and Pellegrino of course) so far is another Bundesliga player – Sergio Guerresi.
The 27-year-old Stuttgart man has scored 15 Bundesliga goals in nine games (missing two games through injury), making it the best season of his career for goals already.
However, he is likely to miss some games in January if he is included in Guinea’s squad for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Next is Paris St-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe with 14 goals and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland with 13.
Next season goals in the French league may only count 1.5 times – because Ligue 1 has dropped to sixth in the Uefa rankings – but for this season Mbappe is still doubling his goals.
Inter’s Lautaro Martinez has also started the season well with 12 goals in Serie A.
La Liga’s top scorer is Kane’s England team-mate Jude Bellingham, who has scored 10 goals in his first season with Real Madrid. Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah also has 10 league goals.
The only player other than Pellegrino to score more than 20 goals for one team this season is Solvi Vatnhamar.
The 37-year-old has scored 21 goals for Vikingur Gota in his native Faroe Islands – where the season is already over – but that equates to just 10.5 league goals.
So these are the contenders for this year’s Golden Boot, but who won in previous years?
Take our quiz to see how many you can name from the last English winner in 2000.
For joint winners, you can choose either. And some of the answers will give you some correct marks…
Can you name these European Golden Boot winners?
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