Ranking the 10 most lethal attackers in the 21st century

Bhargav
Who are the greatest forwards to have graced the beautiful game this century?
Who are the greatest forwards to have graced the beautiful game this century?

#6 Luis Suarez - 0.62 (368 goals)

Luis Suarez has been a prolific goalscorer for club and country.
Luis Suarez has been a prolific goalscorer for club and country.

Luis Suarez is one of the most prolific active goalscorers this century. The 34-year-old centre-forward has scored goals and won big titles galore with many top clubs.

Following his prolific exploits with Ajax in the late 2000s, Liverpool snapped up the Uruguayan in January 2011. After a slow start to life in English football, Suarez soon exploded, leaving a trail of highlight reel-worthy goals in his wake.

He scored 82 goals for the Reds, with his 31 goals in 2013-14 almost ending their two-decade wait for their maiden Premier League title. Suarez then scaled greater heights during a highly successful six-season stint at Barcelona, where he scored almost 200 goals across competitions.

Suarez won three La Liga titles and a continental treble with the Catalans before he switched to Atletico Madrid last summer. He hit the ground running in Madrid, scoring 21 times to help the Rojiblancos win their second league title in seven years.

Suarez has scored against all 31 La Liga teams he has faced, including his previous club Barcelona. He achieved this feat earlier this season.

The all-time Uruguay top scorer has scored 63 times for his country in 125 games. Suarez endured a goalless campaign at the Copa America 2021, though, where Uruguay lost to Colombia in the quarter-finals on penalties.


#5 Harry Kane - 0.64 (269 goals)

Harry Kane has scored goals galore for club and country.
Harry Kane has scored goals galore for club and country.

Harry Kane has scored goals galore for club and country. With 167 goals in the Premier League, he is closing in on Sergio Aguero's record for most goals (184) for a single club in the competition.

The three-time Premier League Golden Boot winner enjoyed a blistering league campaign last season, topping both the goalscoring and assists charts. After a prolific campaign with England at Euro 2020, where he scored four goals, Kane is yet to hit his mojo this season.

He has scored seven goals across competitions this season, but only one of them has come in the Premier League. In fact, he went an entire league game without a touch or a shot in the opposition penalty box for the first time in his English top-flight career earlier this season.

Kane has scored 41 goals in 65 games for England, with all but five of these strikes coming in competitive fixtures. Six of these goals came in the Three Lions' run to the FIFA World Cup 2018 semi-finals, for which Kane won the Golden Boot.


#4 Robert Lewandowski - 0.74 (486 goals)

Robert Lewandowski is a goal machine.
Robert Lewandowski is a goal machine.

Robert Lewandowski is the hottest striker in the game at the moment, outscoring the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi (more on them later).

The 33-year-old has aged like fine wine, showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. He broke the late Gerd Muller's record of most goals (40) in a Bundesliga campaign last year. This campaign, the prolific Pole has already netted 19 times across competitions, with 12 of these strikes coming in the Bundesliga.

The 2019-20 continental treble winner has scored more goals (45) than any player in Europe's top five leagues this year. Considering his blistering exploits in 2021, Lewandowski is among the frontrunners to win this year's Ballon d'Or award.

Poland's all-time top scorer has netted 72 times for his country in over 100 games. He scored three times in as many games at Euro 2020 this summer but could no stop Poland from exiting the tournament in the group stage.

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Edited by Anantaajith Raghuraman
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