Striker Viktor Gyökeres, aged 26, was the world’s top scorer in 2024, ending the year with 62 goals, in 63 games, averaging almost one per match, playing for Sporting and Sweden.
Despite having scored three goals in December, in six games, the player that the ‘lions’ picked up from Coventry, from the English second tier, in the 2023/24 season, had no rivals, clearly beating all the competition.
Gyökeres scored 52 goals for Sporting in 56 games and 10 for Swedenin just seven games, and his production grew a lot from last season to this one in 2024: 26 goals in 2023/24, in 30 games, and 36 in 2024/25, in 33.
This way, The Lions striker managed to overcome the 60 goal barrier, something that the top scorers from the previous two years did not achieve: the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, from Al Nassr, scored 54 in 2023 and the Frenchman Kylian Mbappé scored 56 in 2022, when he was still playing for Paris Saint-Germain.
To find a record superior to that of the Swede, it is necessary to go back to 2021, the year in which the Polish Robert Lewandowski, still at Bayern Munich, scored 69 goals, equaling the records of Fernando Peyroteo (1938) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2013).
In the 21st century, and in history, the best record is the ‘unmatched’ 91 goals that Argentine Lionel Messi, then at FC Barcelona, scored in 2012, surpassing the record set by German Gerd Müller, who had scored 85 in 1972.
Gyökeres was a long way from this record, but he was the ‘king’ of 2024, and scored the most goals in the Portuguese First League, a total of 36, in 35 games. He was the competition’s top scorer in 2023/24 and is poised to be so again in 2024/25.
In other national competitions, the Swede scored seven goals in the Portuguese Cup (eight games) and two in the League Cup (two), failing only in the Super Cup, when he was ‘blank’ in Sporting’s 4-3 defeat against FC Porto, to open this season.
The 26-year-old striker also made his mark in the European cups, scoring five goals in the ‘Champions’ in six games, including a hat-trick against Manchester City (4-1), and two in the Europa League this season. last, in four meetings.
For the Swedish national team, Gyökeres was also a standout, scoring nine goals in the Nations League, in just six matches, albeit in League C, the third European division, and one more in the only friendly match he played, against Portugal (2 to 5).
Adding up his goals in European club competitions and official national team matches, the Swede was also the top scorer in 2024, with 16 goals, compared to 15 for El Kaabi and Harry Kane, 13 for Haaland, 12 for Wirtz and 11 for Lewandowski.
Gyökeres’ most productive month was November, in which he scored 13 goals in eight games, including the hat-trick against City and two pokers, one against Estrela da Amadora (5-1), for the I League, and another against Azerbaijan (6-0), in the League of Nations.
The Nordic, who spent 24 blank games and scored in 39, including 23 games with one goal and 11 doubles, also managed two more hat-tricks, both in the Portuguese championship, one in March, against Boavista ( 6 to 1), and another in August, in Farense (5 to 0).
With so many goals scored in 2024, Gyökeres’ price rose sharply and, with the market reopening in January, he could be the target of some European ‘sharks’, although he is protected by a termination fine of 100 million euros. euros.
The best scorers in the last 10 years:
- 2024 – Viktor Gyökeres, Sue (Sporting) – 62 goals
- 2023 – Cristiano Ronaldo, By (Al Nassr) – 54
- 2022 – Kylian Mbappé, Fra (Paris Saint-Germain) – 56
- 2021 – Robert Lewandowski, Pol (Bayern Munich) – 69
- 2020 – Robert Lewandowski, Pol (Bayern Munich) – 47
- 2019 – Abderrazak Hamdallah, Mar (Al Nassr) – 57
- 2018 – Baghdad Bounedejah, Alg (Al Sadd) – 58
- 2017 – Harry Kane, Ing (Tottenham) – 56
- 2016 – Lionel Messi, Arg (FC Barcelona) – 59
- 2015 – Cristiano Ronaldo, For (Real Madrid) – 57
