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It is often said that the strikers take all the glory. That’s probably true because more often than not, individual awards go the goalscorers bet in the Ballon d’Or or any league’s best player award.
However, there are so many top strikers these days around the globe that many of them go unnoticed.
Take for example the case of French strikers like Kevin Gameiro of Atletico Madrid or Wissam Ben Yedder of Sevilla who have found the back of the net regularly for years and yet, go under the radar probably because there is too much competition in the France squad.
Gameiro and Ben Yedder are just two of many such strikers playing in Europe at the moment and here is our pick of the Top 5.
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#5 Aritz Aduriz
It would be fair to say that Aduriz is a late bloomer, after all, he hit double figures in the league for the first time when he was 28!
He played for Mallorca then but has since gone on to score a mouthwatering in 166 goals in 362 games playing for Valencia and Athletic Bilbao. That’s quite an impressive figure for a player who turned 36 last February.
His two-year stint with Valencia was not his best as he only managed to find the back of the net 23 times in 84 games. The best spell of his career started when he was 31 and returned to Athletic Bilbao.
He has played 334 games for the Basque club scoring 153 times since 2012, winning the Zarra trophy in 2014/15 and 2015/16 for the highest scoring Spaniard in La Liga.
The 2015/16 season was the highlight of his career as he scored 36 goals in 55 games across all competitions. This also eventually earned him a recall to the Spanish National team after a space of six years and he went on to score twice for La Roja with his debut goal coming against Italy to level the game.
#4 Iago Aspas
Iago Aspas is often remembered for his disastrous spell with Liverpool during which he struggled to get on the pitch particularly because of the superior form of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge.
However, the Spaniard has come a long way since. He made a loan move to Sevilla in 2014-15, winning the Europa League with them but in 2015, he returned to Celta Vigo, the club that made him.
In his first season back, he went on to score 18 times in 40 games across all competitions. The following season, He took the tally to 26 goals in 49 games while also winning the Zarra Trophy for 2016/17.
His rich form also earned him a place in the Spain national team and he still gets picked up as a backup to for the likes of Alvaro Morata. On his debut for Spain were 2-0 down to England, he came on as a substitute and scored a spectacular goal to open La Roja’s account. His side went on to draw the game eventually.
Aspas has ensured that he is not remembered for his dreadful corner against Chelsea while playing for Liverpool.
#3 Ciro Immobile
No player has scored more goals in Europe's top 5 leagues than Ciro Immobile
Immobile rose to fame during the 2013/14 season during which he scored 22 league goals and won the Golden Boot in Serie A. His fine form earned him a move to Borussia Dortmund in the summer but he struggled in Germany and in Spain later with Sevilla before opting to return to Italy on loan at Torino.
Aspas played 14 games for the Turin club in the latter half of 2015/16 season scoring five times before joining Lazio permanently ahead of the 2016/17 season.
A permanent return to Italy seems to have rejuvenated him as he enjoyed a fine first season with Lazio scoring 26 times in 41 games across all competitions.
The former Juventus youth has taken things up by a notch this season with 13 goals after just 9 league games and 17 goals in 13 games across all competitions! This makes him the highest scorer across Europe’s top five leagues.
He scored a brace against his former club, Juventus, in the Supercoppa Italiana which Lazio went on to win 3-2. His 13 league goals this season include two more against Juventus and two against Milan.
#2 Dries Mertens
Mertens has made a seamless transition into a striker
When Napoli lost their star striker Gonzalo Higuain to Juventus last summer, they had a huge void to fill and hence they signed Arkadiusz Milik from Ajax as a potential replacement. However, Milik suffered a ligament injury after making a bright start to life in Italy.
With Milik out, Napoli needed a striker to lead their potent lineup and up stepped Dries Mertens. Now Mertens is a terrific player, but he was never a striker. He has predominantly played as a winger or as an attacking midfielder his entire career before that.
He finished the 2016/17 season with 28 league goals and 9 assists in 35 games and narrowly missed out on the Serie Golden boot by just one goal, In all competitions, he scored 34 times in 45 games.
Mertens carried on as Napoli’s striker this season also and has so far racked up 9 goals in 14 games.
Milik’s injury turned out to be a blessing in disguise, otherwise, we may never have had the chance to see the striker Dries Mertens can be.
#1 Edin Dzeko
Dzeko has found his goalscoring mojo back with Roma
Don’t get me wrong, Edin Dzeko has always been a terrific striker but he has never got the appreciation he deserves. He was a star at Wolfsburg once and helped them win the Bundesliga in 2008/09.
However, at Manchester City, the Bosnian often lurked in the shadows of players like Sergio Aguero or Carlos Tevez or David Silva despite his quality.
Everyone remembers that Sergio Aguero scored the winning goal against QPR in 2012 to clinch the Premier League title but Edin Dzeko scored an equally important goal minutes before to take Man City closer to their first Premier League title.
After becoming nothing but a rotation player at Manchester City, Dzeko joined Roma on loan in 2015/16 and didn’t have the best of season racking up just 10 goals in 39 games across all competitions with just 8 in the league.
However, in the season that followed, he scored 39 times in 51 games across all competitions of which 29 were in the league and helped him win the Serie A Golden Boot.
Regular playing time and a team that values him seems to have instilled confidence back in the 31-year-old and he has now found his goalscoring rhythm.
This season, he has 10 goals in 10 games which includes an impressive brace against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the UEFA Champions League.
After all, we are talking about a man who has collectively scored 216 goals in 431 games playing for Wolfsburg, Manchester City and Roma, and also has 52 goals in 89 games for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
