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What is more frightening for a team in football than the presence of a lethal goal scorer in their opposition? The presence of a consistently lethal goalscorer! It's one thing to score goals, but if you can't do it week in and week out, then no one's massively impressed by you. The difference between great strikers and the greatest strikers is that the latter rarely ever disappears from the scoresheet.
Every year the Golden Boot race for each of Europe's top five leagues receives massive coverage as one never gets too tired of watching goals in football. There are some world-class forwards who find a way to get on the scoresheet in the most dire circumstances too.
Goals matter to them, scoring is an art that comes naturally to them and their insatiable nature only makes them more entertaining to watch. This piece is all about those who have a habit of consistently getting goals and more goals. Here are the five forwards with the best goal-per-game ratio in Europe this year.
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Note: Goals scored in all competitions for their clubs and national teams have been combined for this list.
#5 Mohamed Salah - 0.75
Quite easily the best in-form player in world football right now, Mohamed Salah is stealing the limelight game after game. The Egyptian has made a mockery of Premier League defenses and is scoring for fun while embarrassing defenders. Since the start of the year, Salah has scored 30 goals for Liverpool.
His goal-per-game ratio of 0.75 is the best in the Premier League and earns him fifth spot on this list. The Reds forward has now scored in his last ten consecutive appearances. In doing so he beat Daniel Sturridge's record for most consecutive scoring appearances for Liverpool, which was of eight games.
Jurgen Klopp can't help but praise Salah, who has been nothing short of exceptional. With his goalscoring spree, he sits top of the Golden Boot race with 10 goals in nine games in the Premier League. The Liverpool forward also broke Didier Drogba's record as the highest scoring African in the English top-flight.
He scored a brilliant hat-trick in Manchester United's 5-0 mauling at Old Trafford. Drogba, who had 104 goals, is now second to Salah, whose tally has reached 107 and counting. Liverpool premiered a nightmare at the Theater of Dreams last Sunday which put Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's job at great risk and Salah was the destroyer-in-chief.
#4 Karim Benzema - 0.77
God knows where Real Madrid would have been in the last couple of years if Karim Benzema hadn't simply just become the super striker he is now. Even Didier Deschamps couldn't resist capitalizing on the Frenchman's form and re-called him into the France squad. He repaid the faith by scoring four goals for them at Euro 2020.
Prior to Cristiano Ronaldo's departure from Real Madrid, Benzema had only scored 20 plus goals in La Liga in two seasons. Once in the 2011-12 season and then in the 2015-16 season. However, after the Portuguese left, Benzema deservedly rose as the new hero of Santiago Bernabeu. Since the start of 2021, he has scored 33 goals and that earns him a goal-per-game ratio of 0.77.
The French striker has scored more than 20 goals in the Spanish league in each of the last three consecutive campaigns. Moreover, Benzema has been all over the pitch when Real Madrid attack, he's made it real hard for the defenders to mark and track him.
The centre-forward has already managed 19 goal contributions (11 goals and eight assists) this season in 13 matches in La Liga and the Champions League combined. To put that into perspective, Real Madrid's rivals Barcelona as a team have only scored 16 in the same matches. His link-up play with Vinicius Jr. has been very crucial for Los Blancos this season and Carlo Ancelloti will hope that long may it continue.
#3 Lionel Messi - 0.86
It's ridiculous that Lionel Messi features on this list given his delayed start to the campaign with Paris Saint-Germain. But then again, who are we kidding, it's Messi we are talking about and everyone knows he's always scoring.
The former Barcelona star has a goal-per-game ratio of 0.86 in 2021 courtesy of the 31 goals he has scored for club and country. He is one of the favorites to win what would be his seventh Ballon d'Or, but we might have a surprise waiting for us. The Argentine maestro finally fulfilled his dream of winning the Copa America earlier this summer by beating Brazil in the final.
He was deemed the player of the tournament for scoring four goals and providing five assists. Messi opened his account for PSG in a Champions League game against Manchester City. He has three goals in the Champions League this season.
Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest of all time to play the game, Messi registered an unwanted stat in Ligue 1 this season. This is the first time since the 2005-06 season that the star forward has gone four first games into the top-flight without scoring a single league goal. That wasn't enough to keep him off the list though.
#2 Erling Haaland - 1.00
Who would have thought a 20-year-old kid would come to the German Bundesliga for a decent €20 million and with just one season raise his market value to €150m. But the world could be forgiven because no one was ready for Erling Haaland. The striker joined Dortmund last year and has established himself as the hottest prospect in Europe.
Since his arrival, Haaland has been breaking records as if he's peeling bananas, one after another as many as he likes, whenever it suits him. When scoring goals comes easy to you, why wait for longer periods to score them? Haaland has a scary strike rate for such a young man in the game.
He is the fastest player to reach 20 goals in the Champions League, a feat he has achieved in just 14 appearances. Since the start of this year, Haaland has scored 37 goals and astonishingly he's scoring at the rate of a goal per game with club and country combined.
The Norwegian is currently out injured and is expected to miss approximately two weeks of action due to a hip injury. Dortmund sit second in the Bundesliga thanks to Haaland's nine goals and three assists in just six games. The striker's release clause of €75 million will kick in from next season. It will be interesting to see which side lures him away.
#1 Robert Lewandowski - 1.26
What Haaland has done in one season, Robert Lewandowski has been doing season after season in the Bundesliga for nearly a decade now. Many around the world are rooting for the Polish striker to win the Ballon d'Or. Should he win, it's safe to assume there would be little backlash against the decision given his golden standards.
Lewandowski has been untouchable in terms of goalscoring since the start of 2021 and has the best goal-per-game ratio in Europe. His 48 goals scored are the most by any player and that is far ahead of the second best, which provides him with a strike rate of 1.26 goals per game.
The Pole has already collected six Golden Boot awards in the Bundesliga, and last season was his fourth consecutive with Bayern Munich. He has started the 2021-22 season just as prolifically as as ever scoring 17 goals in all competitions in 14 games.
Lewandowski broke Gerd Mueller's record of 40 Bundesliga goals in a single season, by scoring 41 in 29 appearances last season. Give him the Ballon d'Or already please?
