Getting a goal is without question the most magical thing in football. Something by which hundreds of emotions can be expressed. The feelings vary according to the importance of the goal being scored. In most cases, it’s pure excitement and joy, while in other instances it’s more of a feeling of consolation. The significance of scoring goals is highlighted by the fact that strikers are the hardest players to successfully scout, and hence the most expensive transfers in football. However, goal contributions can, of course, come from elsewhere on the pitch.
“Strikers are the hardest players to successfully scout.”
Wingers and midfielders are the second likeliest to contribute to a team’s goal-scoring endeavors, with defenders somewhat less likely, and goalkeepers being the rarest source of a goal. This article will examine the top five goal scorers joint among the big five European leagues – Premier League, La Liga, Seria A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 – since the beginning of the current season, by taking into consideration minutes played, minutes per goal, as well as the number of shots on and off-target.
Fifth place among goal scored in the top five European leagues is currently being shared by six players. Sergio Aguero (Man City), Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Roowen Hennings (Dusseldorf), Wissam Ben Yedder (Monaco) and Mousa Dembele (Lyon). The latter two also share the top goalscorer position in the French Ligue 1. Despite fifth place being ‘crowded’, if we take into account the minutes-per-goal ratio of the above players, we can see that Sergio Aguero is the more efficient forward.
Sergio Aguero
The Argentinian has scored 9 goals, one every 82 minutes in a total of 735 minutes he has played. Out of 30 shots he has attempted, 12 were on target (40%). He has also registered 2 assists. Sergio Aguero has been one of the most consistent strikers in the Premier League. He has been registering elite numbers since 2011 when he joined Manchester City.
He won the golden boot in 2014-15 with 26 goals. In total, he has scored 173 times in 249 matches in all competitions for his current club. Who can forget one of the most dramatic goals in EPL history against QPR in 2012, when at the 94th minute, his goal gave Manchester City the title after 44 years?
Timo Werner and Jamie Vardy
Timo Werner (RB Leipzig) and Jamie Vardy (Leicester City FC) have both scored 11 goals, however, the English striker has achieved that in a worse minutes-per-goal ratio compared to the German youngster. As a result, the Leicester City player is ranked fourth on our list and Timo Werner as third.
Despite that, Jamie Vardy leads the top goal scorers table in the English Premier League with 11 goals in 1080 minutes played, scoring a goal every 98 minutes. Beyond that, out of his 23 shots in total, 16 were on target (70%). This means that nearly every two shots from Vardy lead to a goal (47% goal accuracy).
“Vardy is among the top 3 Premier League goal scorers in the last 5 seasons.”
Having joined Leicester City in 2012, Jamie Vardy is a great example of hard work, as he was playing in the fifth tier of English football until the age of 24. He has scored a total of 111 goals in 251 appearances for LCFC, with his greatest achievement being winning the EPL title in 2015-16. In that season he scored a remarkable 24 goals.
It has to be mentioned that he is also among the top 3 goal scorers of the EPL in the last 5 seasons (excluding the current), having scored 75 times. He is only behind Harry Kane (122 goals) and Sergio Aguero (112 goals).
Timo Werner has scored 11 goals, one in every 82 minutes of a total of 899 minutes played and has also registered 4 assists. He has 32 total shots, 22 of them on target (69%) and he is at the moment second on Bundesliga’s top goal scorers table. Timo is just 23 years old and also plays for the national team of Germany, for which he scored 11 times in 28 games.
Werner has hit the back of the net 61 times in 104 appearances for RB Leipzig (2016-present) and also scored 13 goals forVFB Stuttgart (2013-16). He is one of the most promising German players and it is no coincidence that he is the youngest goal scorer to score twice in a Bundesliga game (17 years, 249 days). He is also the youngest player to reach 100 Bundesliga appearances (20 years, 203 days).
Ciro Immobile
Ciro Immobile is second on the list of the top goal scorers of the big 5 European leagues. The Lazio center forward has scored 14 goals and registed 5 assists. He is scoring a goal every 67 minutes, having played a total of 937 minutes. He is currently the top scorer in Seria A. Also, out of his 34 total shots, 22 were on target (65%).
The Italian international striker has scored a total of 81 goals in 117 appearances for Lazio since 2016, sharing the golden boot with Mauro Icardi in 2017-18 with 29 goals. Ciro was also top goal scorer of Seria A with Torino in 2013-14 (22 goals in 33 matches).
At the age of 29 he is performing better than ever on the pitch, having grown in efficiency and maturity since his days at Dortmund. Lazio’s style of play gives him the opportunity to concentrate on scoring goals, without having to be as involved in pressing or build-up play as in previous seasons.
Robert Lewandowski
When talking about goal scoring consistency, the name of Robert Lewandowski is inevitably one of the first that comes to mind. The Polish striker is currently on top of the goal-scoring table in Germany, with 16 goals in 962 minutes played. This means that he is scoring a goal every 60 minutes. He is confident both inside and outside of the box, with this reflected in the fact that his 43 shots have hit the target 24 times (56%).
The Bayern Munich striker has scored a total of 144 goals in 170 matches for his current club, and 74 times in 131 appearances for Borussia Dortmund.
In addition, ‘the goal-scoring machine’ has hit the back of the net 60 more times in 110 international matches with his home country. ‘Leva’ won the Bundesliga’s golden boot four times (2013-14, 2015-16, 2017-18, 2018-19), was chosen as Polish player of the year 7 consecutive times (2011-2017) and Bundesliga’s player of the season once, for the 2016-17 season.
by Joseph Violaris, BSc in Sports Science (Brunel University), MSc in Sports Management (Loughborough University)
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