January 23 – Swedish striker Viktor Gaikares is revealed as the top scorer of 2024 by the CIES Football Observatory after a fantastic season for Sporting CP, scoring 64 goals in the last twelve months, 54 for his club and 10 at national team level.
He tops the CIES survey, which represents the 100 players in world football who have scored the most goals in official club or national team matches (senior, U23 or U21) in the last twelve months.
The achievement is all the more impressive considering Sweden’s absence from last summer’s UEFA European Championships, which could present the 26-year-old with an opportunity to add to his tally.
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland remains second in the rankings despite a drop in goals towards the end of the year. The Norwegian, who also didn’t miss the Euros, netted 52 times across the 12-month period, including 11 goals for his national team.
England captain Harry Kane completes the podium with 47 goals throughout 2024, including 40 for FC Bayern Munich as he continues to thrive in Germany.
The evergreen Cristiano Ronaldo was fourth in the ranking with 44 goals in 2024. 37 of those have come for Saudi Pro League side Al Nasr, with the 39-year-old still scoring seven goals for his country, proving he still has what it takes. The highest level despite turning 40 this year.
Olympiakos forward Ayoub El Kabi completed the top five, with a remarkable 15 goals in the UEFA Conference League to take his overall tally for club and country to 43 goals.
According to goal frequency, the top three players ranked by CIES are Irishman Garban Coughlan of New Zealand’s Kashmir Technical (one goal every 43 minutes), Japan’s Tomoyuki Doi of Singapore’s Geylang United and Uruguay’s Martin Couteruccio of Peru’s Sporting Crystal.
The study also presents the rankings for the last two and three years. Over the past two years, no one has scored more goals than Arling Haaland (101), while Kylian Mbappe tops the list with 147 goals over the last three years.
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