Highlights

• The 2023/2024 season has seen a number of strikers at the top of their game.
• Harry Kane's move to Bayern Munich has seen him dominate the Bundesliga following his exploits with Tottenham in the Premier League.
• Erling Haaland has drawn criticism lately, but he's still one of the best strikers on the planet.

The hardest but most important part of football is to put the ball in the back of the net. This makes strikers the most valuable assets in the sport, as finding a number nine that can regularly find a way to score goals is a rare commodity.

Some teams find a way to spread their goals around the team, but it is perhaps no coincidence that the best teams tend to have the most prolific men leading the line. Obviously, playing for a better team gives the forward a better chance of having shots at goal, but ensuring the ball finds a way past the goalkeeper is a fine art. This article now ranks the top 10 strikers in world football at the current moment, with only two centre-forwards operating in the Premier League..

Ranking factors

Football is all about opinions. There is often no right or wrong, as most parts of the beautiful game are subjective. Statistics can be used to back up claims, but nothing can be proved outright when ranking players in order. For the list below, the following factors have been used to help place each striker:

• Goals
• Assists
• Goals per game
• Importance to team
• Individual performances

1 Harry Kane

Club: Bayern Munich

Harry Kane is modern football's answer to Wayne Rooney. Yes, he will absolutely score 20 goals a season. But he'll also hit double figures in the assist rankings and spend about 30% of his time playing as a holding midfielder just to find that added space to work his magic.

The England captain became his nation's top goalscorer in 2023 as well as reaching second place in the all-time Premier League scoring charts after scoring an incredible 213 times for Tottenham. His move to Bayern Munich has been a success to date as the 30-year-old searches for his first major honour in the sport.

2 Erling Haaland

Club: Manchester City

Erling Haaland has to go down as one of the best strikers in world football for one reason. He's the best at putting the ball in the back of the opponent's net. The Norwegian has set the world alight ever since he graced the Premier League with his presence. He smashed the goalscoring record for a single season, scoring 36 times in only 35 appearances during his debut campaign in the competition.

Haaland's second season in the English top flight kicked off in a similar fashion as he seemed to score every single week before being forced to spend time on the sidelines. He's faced a lot of scrutiny from pundits for some of his performances as of late, but he's still one of the best goalscorers on the planet.

3 Kylian Mbappe

Club: Paris Saint-Germain

Is Kylian Mbappe a striker? Debatable. Although he can pretty much play anywhere across the front line, so he is included in the top 10, even if he is arguably more effective coming off one of the flanks. But back to the player, never have we witnessed such devastating explosiveness as when Mbappe is well and truly at it.

The Frenchman falls into the super rare category of being unstoppable at times and if he hasn't claimed two or three Ballon d'Or awards by the time he's hung up his boots then it'll be a shock. It is extremely harsh that the man who scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final just over 12 months ago has to settle for third place on the list, but that is more down to his effectiveness from the left wing.

4 Lautaro Martinez

Club: Inter Milan

A typically tenacious Argentine centre-forward, Lautaro Martinez has been doing the business at Inter for several seasons now. During the 2022/23 campaign, he netted an impressive 21 league goals and was integral in the club's title charge in which they narrowly lost out to city rivals AC Milan.

Now entering the prime of his career as a 26-year-old, Martinez looks to be accelerating his progression and has become one of the finest attackers on the planet. The Inter Milan forward leads the way for the Serie A Golden Boot with a significant margin between himself and the chasing pack. Martinez has refined his finishing ability in recent times and is now being recognised around the world.

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6 Viktor Gyokeres

Club: Sporting

The name on everybody's lips, Viktor Gyokeres is all set for a big-money move in the 2024 summer transfer window. The Sweden international only joined his current club Sporting the previous year from Championship outfit Coventry City, but his sparkling form while in the Portuguese league has caught the attention of some of the biggest clubs across Europe. The likes of Arsenal and Chelsea will surely be targeting a new number nine come the summer, and given the consistency with which Gyokeres has shone at Sporting, he will no doubt be on their radar.

7 Antoine Griezmann

Club: Atletico Madrid

Antoine Griezmann is like Mbappe, in that he doesn't always play as the sole striker in his team. The Frenchman has been sensational for Atletico Madrid ever since his return to the club from Barcelona in 2021. The 32-year-old has formed an unbelievable partnership with Alvaro Morata as Diego Simeone's men look to keep pace with the top sides in La Liga.

The Frenchman has bounced back in a major way after a poor spell with Barcelona and is having a stellar campaign in Europe and domestically for Atletico.

8 Victor Osimhen

Club: Napoli

Victor Osimhen was one of the breakout stars of the 2022/23 season as Napoli claimed their first league title in over three decades. The Nigerian was unplayable and constantly gave Serie A defenders a torrid time on the journey to success.

Osimhen's 26 goals and five assists in 32 outings in the Italian top-flight were the key reason behind Luciano Spaletti's side lifting the trophy at the end of the year. Some of Europe's elite clubs are said to be tracking a summer move for the attacker, meaning he could well move higher up on this list in the near future.

9 Cristiano Ronaldo

Club: Al-Nassr

There was once a point in time when the greatest goalscorer of all time would be the name at the very top of this list, with no real competition for his crown. In 2024, however, Cristiano Ronaldo finds himself plying his trade in the Saudi Pro League, which is undeniably lower in quality than the top European leagues.

The Portuguese superstar is the biggest fish in the small pond that is the emerging division. Ronaldo scored more goals than any other player in 2023, hitting the back of the net 54 times. As already mentioned, the lack of quality in the league he plays in has to factor against the Real Madrid and Manchester United icon, however.

10 Robert Lewandowski

Club: Barcelona

Robert Lewandowski became the only man to manage Champions League hat-tricks at three different clubs when he rocketed three past Viktoria Plzen on his European debut for Barcelona. The prolific Pole just knows where the goal is and has proven the only challenger to the scoring power of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the last decade, now surpassing them both season after season.

Heading towards his twilight years, the ex-Bayern Munich talisman finds himself falling slightly behind the young guns such as Mbappe and Haaland. The fortunes of Barcelona on the pitch aren't helping his case either, as the Spanish giants have struggled to keep up their strong showing from the last campaign.

11 Heung-min Son

Club: Tottenham Hotspur

Heung-min Son started the 2023/24 season as Ange Postecoglou's main striker at Tottenham, which makes him eligible for this list. Playing as a number nine for the majority of the first half of the Premier League season, the South Korean netted 12 goals from his opening 20 games.

Son does often play from the left wing, but Kane's aforementioned departure to Bayern Munich opened up a place as Spurs' number nine. The 31-year-old also plays a central role for his nation, leading the line at the AFC Asian Cup admirably. His two-footedness and clinical finishing ability sets him apart from many other potential candidates for this list.

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