The 2023-24 European Golden Shoe contenders: Can anyone stop Harry Kane?

The 2023-24 season is the first in 20 years that doesn’t feature either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in one of Europe’s major leagues.

Those two names dominated the scoring charts across Europe for almost two entire decades, notching almost a thousand league goals combined and lifting no fewer than 10 European Golden Shoe awards.

But we’ve now arrived at a new era and some familiar names have already made a strong start in the first four months of the 2023-24 campaign. We’ve taken a look at the top 10 goalscorers across Europe’s big five leagues – Ligue 1, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and the Premier League.

Note: if two players are tied on goals, we’ve ordered them by their goals-per-minute ratio. Dominic Solanke (12 goals) just misses out on cracking this top 10.

Son has been thriving under Ange Postecoglou which is great to see. While a gaping Harry Kane-shaped hole in the squad, Son has been the player to really step up to the plate this time around.

The South Korean forward has alternated between the left-hand side and playing through the middle under Postecoglou. With 12 league goals so far, he’s already surpassed his tally from last season.

He’s now away at the Asian Cup and it’ll be interesting to see how Postecoglou’s men fill the void left by their captain.

The Getafe forward is on track to have his most prolific season yet. This has already been his best goalscoring return in La Liga and he isn’t showing any signs of slowing down soon.

He’s yet to receive a senior Spain call-up but it wouldn’t be a shock to see him make La Roja’s Euro 2024 squad if he can keep up this form.

Morata has looked like a player reborn since linking up with Atletico Madrid again last season. He returned from Spain’s winter break by scoring a hat-trick against title-chasers Girona, although still ended up losing the game 4-3.

The Spaniard has combined expertly with Antoine Griezmann, who has 11 league goals himself during the campaign. Diego Simeone seems to know how to get the best out of the duo.

The England international scored 10 goals in his first 10 appearances in all competitions, which equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s record-breaking start. He only turned 20 and already he looks like a leader at the heart of Los Blancos’ midfield. Ridiculous.

After he scored twice in a 2-1 comeback victory over Barcelona back in October, we’re reaching the point where it’s impossible to overhype Bellingham. He might just be the best player in the world.

READ: Jude Bellingham produced an El Clasico masterclass – he might genuinely be England’s greatest ever

Liverpool’s Egyptian King has been a near ever-present in the European goalscoring charts since arriving at Anfield in 2017 – so it’s no surprise to see him feature here once more.

Salah has 14 goals in 20 Premier League appearances so far this season. He leaves big shoes to fill while away at AFCON.

The least surprising entry in the top 10, it’s a testament to Haaland’s ridiculously lethal quality that people actually questioned him earlier in the campaign.

The Norwegian will surely claim the Premier League’s Golden Boot again, having raced into an early lead in the top scorers’ chart with 14 goals in 15 appearances for Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions.

But he’ll have to up his game when he returns from injury if he wants to hold his European Golden Shoe.

READ: The fastest players to reach 50 goals in the Premier League: Haaland obliterates record…

A relatively lesser-known name, Guirassy signed for Stuttgart this summer after impressing there on loan from Rennes last season. He’s since taken his game to another level as surprise package Stuttgart have punched well above their weight to sit third in the Bundesliga table.

The 27-year-old Guinea international averaged a goal every other game in the German top flight last term and he’s bettering that ratio in 2023-24 so far with 17 goals in just 14 games, notching in almost every outing so far.

But Stuttgart might not be able to keep hold of him for much longer. The striker reportedly has a €17.5million release clause, although his attention is firmly on representing his country at AFCON at present.

No player on this list has a better goals-per-minute return. Not even the man in the top spot.

The Argentinian World Cup winner has been in the form of his life in 2023-24 so far. A move to bring Romelu Lukaku back to the San Siro broke down after his flirtations with Juventus, but  Martinez has stepped up in his old strike partner’s absence to be the Nerazzurri’s out-and-out talisman up top.

He’s averaged a goal every 89 minutes in Serie A this season and has hit the back of the net against Juventus, Atalanta and Fiorentina.

Back in September, Martinez underlined his status as one of Europe’s most lethal marksmen with a spellbinding four-goal, 35-minute cameo against Salernitana. Absolutely outrageous.

Having registered a respectable average of 24 league goals a season for PSG since arriving from Monaco back in 2017, Mbappe has surprisingly only broken the 30-goal mark once (33 back in 2018-19) and is yet to claim a European Golden Shoe.

Now that Messi and Neymar have left, this season is Mbappe’s first in which he’s undoubtedly the main man at the Parc des Princes. Having scored 18 goals in 16 appearances that total 1331 minutes, it looks as though this’ll be the year in which his numbers go truly stratospheric.

The England captain has made a sensational start to life in Germany. He’s already scored more than any Bundesliga player managed last season, having reached that milestone before Germany’s winter break.

It was only a couple of years back that Robert Lewandowski broke Gerd Muller’s long-held record of 40 league goals in a Bundesliga season, but Kane might genuinely be in with a shout of challenging that in his debut season. He’s already scored three hat-tricks and notched a further five assists to boot.

Normal service was resumed when Kane marked Bayern’s return to action with yet another goal in a 3-0 victory over Hoffenheim. There’s just no stopping him.

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the last 20 players to break the world transfer record?