Earnings per League Goal of the 2022 European Golden Boot Contenders
An easy tap-in, a scorcher from distance, a bullet header or a simple penalty. It doesn’t really matter, as long as the ball ends in the back of the net. They all count – a goal is a goal. SportingPedia’s newest report is all about goals and money. We looked into the latest Golden Boot rankings, listing the most prolific footballers across all of the European leagues for the past season, and divided their reported salaries by the respective goal count. This way we calculated the amount each of the contenders costed their team per league goal scored. This is a great way to estimate a player’s value for money and the numbers tell an intriguing story:
Key Takeaways:
- South America has only 1 representative on the list
- There are only 3 non-Europeans
- There are three Frenchmen inside the top 5 and 7 out of the total 17
- Out of Europe’s top 5 leagues, La Liga has produced the least Golden Boot contenders (just 1) and the Bundesliga the most (5) this season
- Kylian Mbappe’ s 28 Ligue 1 goals were the most expensive, with each one costing PSG exactly £761,429.
- The least expensive goals were scored by Ohi Omoijuanfo at £18,182 each
- Only two players managed to break the 30 goal barrier
- Two players did not play in the Top-5 Leagues, thus having their number of goals multiplied for the ranking by 1.5 instead of 2.0
League Goal
PSG
Ligue 1
Real Madrid
La Liga
Liverpool
EPL
Bayern Munich
Bundesliga
Tottenham EPL
BVB Bundesliga
Monaco Ligue 1
Lazio
Serie A
Inter Serie A
Leverkusen Bundesliga
FC Koln Bundesliga
RB Leipzig Bundesliga
Lyon Ligue 1
Fiorentina/Juventus
Serie A
Rennes Ligue 1
Hajduk Split
HNL
Molde/Red Star
Superliga* The player was performing in a lower league, so the ammount of goals there is multiplied by 1,5 instead of 2 like the top 5 leagues
For a second consecutive year the accolade went to Robert Lewandowski. The Polish #9 just completed his transfer to Barcelona, after marking an era at Bayern Munich. The clinical striker bagged 35 Bundesliga goals, beating the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema to the coveted Golden Boot. There are some notable absentees, as it is the first time in 15 years without Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi among the top 10, with the pair enduring disappointing campaigns. The mercurial Argentinian is a record 6 time European Golden Boot winner, but managed only 6 Ligue 1 goals in his debut season with PSG, while Cristiano was far more convincing with 18 scored for Manchester United.
The French National Team manager Didier Deschamps will have plenty of options to select for the squad’s attacking positions in November. There are 7 French strikers, who managed to score 20 or more league goals last season, with all of them performing in the top 5 European leagues. Of all Golden Boot contenders, Kylian Mbappe’s goals came at the highest price, with each costing £761,429, while those of his Les Bleus partner in crime Karim Benzema cost £529,630. On the opposite end is Ohi Omoijuanfo who is probably the least recognisable name on the list. The player spent the most of his career in his native Norway, before recently moving abroad to Serbia. Besides Lewandowski only Omoijuanfo managed to score more than 30 goals last season, with the cost of every single one being “just” £18,182, which is almost 42 times less than the most expensive ones in the chart.
Lewandowski’s 35 goals is the 3rd lowest amount of goals a Golden Boot winner has scored in the past 10 years. The record for most goals and points is held by Lionel Messi, who remains the only one in history to have reached triple-digit points. If he hypothetically was on the contenders’ list, his mediocre performance at PSG with just 6 goals would have put him at £8.3 million per league goal, which is not exactly great value for money.
The price of all the 422 goals, scored by the leading Golden Boot contenders, was estimated at an average £272,019 pounds for each.
“At first I was not surprised at all when looking at the ranking, but when I started going through the details it hit me that there is no Brazilian or Spaniard on the Golden Boot contenders list. Only one South American is just not normal, after being used to hearing about Messi, Suarez, Cavani, Neymar week in, week out across the past decade. Аfter thinking about it though it seems logical – there is a change of generations taking place, with all of the aforementioned four already on the wrong side of their 30s. Next year I expect to see at least one of the South American new wave of Darwin Nunez, Julian Alvarez and Vinicius Junior to feature, as they all seem very talented.”
our football betting analyst Sean Foster commented on the topic. Do not forget to check some of his betting reviews here.
Kylian Mbappe
£761,429 per goal; 28 Ligue 1 goals
Mbappe was the best of the MNM trio of Neymar Jr, Leo Messi and him at PSG last term. Gifted with incredible pace and speed, Kylian bagged 28 Ligue 1 goals. He was the topic of a much-discussed free transfer to Real Madrid, which eventually did not materialize and Mbappe remained in Paris.
Karim Benzema
£529,630 per goal; 27 La Liga goals
Karim Benzema was the main reason for Real Madrid’s success last season. Los Blancos triumphed with yet another Champions League cup after defeating Liverpool in the final. Benzema’s goals also propelled Real to their 35th domestic title, with the Frenchman claiming the “Pichichi” award for La Liga highest goalscorer. King Karim is the oldest player to be featured on our list.
Mohamed Salah
£508,696 per goal; 23 Premier League goals
The Egyptian has been the engine force driving Liverpool en route to success last season. In the first half of the campaign, he was scoring goal after goal, but things slowed down from mid-February onwards, after Salah lost the AFCON final. Mo helped the Reds win the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, but his biggest regret was losing a 2nd Champions League final to Real Madrid.
Robert Lewandowski
£488,800 per goal; 35 Bundesliga goals
Even at 33 years of age the Pole is not showing signs of slowing down. In 2022 the striker helped Bayern Munich win another Bundesliga title. This is his second European Golden Boot in a row. The player has just completed a transfer to FC Barcelona, and is open to the challenge of La Liga.
Heung-Min Son
£434,087 per goal; 23 Premier League goals
The South Korean had another impressive season with Tottenham Hotspur, but once again failed to win a trophy with the London club. The attacker finished tied with Mohamed Salah in the Premier League Golden Boot race, with both bagging 23 goals, but unlike Salah, none of Son’s goals came from the penalty spot.
Erling Haaland
£312,000 per goal; 22 Bundesliga goals
The Norwegian towering striker missed around 3 months of football due to injury, but still managed to finish as the 3rd best goalscorer in the Bundesliga. Haaland chose to follow in his father’s footsteps, joining Manchester City in June. Today Erling is celebrating his 22nd birthday, making him the youngest player to make the list.
Wissam Ben Yedder
£266,240 per goal; 25 Ligue 1 goals
This was the best season on a personal level of Ben Yedder’s career. He was the second best goalscorer in the French top flight, with the only player finishing above him being Kylian Mbappe. His goals helped Monaco return to the Champions League, as they finished on the 3rd spot in Ligue 1.
Ciro Immobile
£234,963 per goal; 27 Serie A goals
The 32 year old Immobile became the the top goalscorer in Italy. This is the third time he has won the prestigious award. The striker single-handedly scored over 30% of Lazio’s league goals, helping them reach the Europa League places.
Lautaro Martinez
£188,890 per goal; 21 Serie A goals
The Argentinian was tasked with the scoring burden at Inter, following Romelu Lukaku’s transfer to Chelsea last summer. Even though the Nerazzurri finished as runners-up in Serie A and were eliminated by Liverpool at the ⅛ finals of the Champions League, Lautaro proved he can lead the line and deliver the goods.
Patrik Schick
£177,677 per goal; 24 Bundesliga goals
After winning the Golden Boot at Euro 2020, the tall striker has continued to impress at club level. His goals helped Bayer Leverkusen qualify for the group stage of the Champions League. The Czech international has drawn the attention of many clubs around Europe, but the German side has made it clear that he will stay in Leverkusen for at least one more year.
Anthony Modeste
£156,000 per goal; 20 Bundesliga goals
The striker helped the modest FC Köln secure European football next season, as they finished in the 7th position in the Bundesliga last campaign. Modeste’s chances of getting a call-up to the French team for Qatar are slim, as the nation’s main striker is another 34 year old veteran.
Christopher Nkunku
£132,600 per goal; 20 Bundesliga goals
Nkunku was rewarded for his brilliant season with RB Leipzig by Didier Deschamps, who gave the attacker the chance to represent the French National Team earlier this year. His club side won the DFB Pokal, where the player scored 4 more goals. Nkunku recently signed a contract extension with the German team.
Moussa Dembele
£126,286 per goal; 21 Ligue 1 goals
The striker is coming off his personal best season. Dembele scored at least one goal in each of his last nine appearances in the French Ligue 1, including braces against Metz and Bordeaux. Lyon’s failure to qualify for the European tournaments may lead to a transfer.
Dusan Vlahovic
£56,333 per goal; 24 Serie A goals
In the first half of the season the Serbian scored 17 goals in 21 games for Fiorentina, which resulted in a transfer to Juventus worth just over 70 million euros. With the Bianconerri the player has had a slow start, but still managed to net 7 goals in 15 league matches.
Martin Terrier
£47,048 per goal; 21 Ligue 1 goals
The 24 year old was performing very well for the Rennes side that finished in 4th position in Ligue 1, securing Europa League football last term. His main position is left winger, but Terrier is quite versatile and can fill in at any attacking position.
Marko Livaja
£33,429 per goal; 28 HNL goals
In his first full season with Hajduk Split, Livaja showed brilliant composure in front of the goal.The striker’s 28 league goals helped Hajduk finish as runners-up in Croatia. He scored another 4 in the domestic Cup competition, which aided the team to win the trophy.
Ohi Omoijuanfo
£18,182 per goal; 33 goals (27 Eliteserien/6 Super Liga)
Omoijuanfo spent the 1st half of the season in Norway with Molde, scoring 27 goals in 29 games. In the winter transfer window a free move to Red Star Belgrade followed. There the Norwegian striker took part in just 9 matches, but added another 6 goals to his overall tally for the season.