Candidates to win the top scorer title in La Liga for the 2024/2025 season

Tomorrow marks the start of the Spanish top league, La Liga, with Athletic Bilbao hosting the Madrid-team Getafe at 7:00 PM CET, followed by Real Betis against last season's big surprise Girona at 9:30 PM CET. The reigning league champions are Real Madrid, who easily won the league last season, finishing 10 points ahead of their biggest rival Barcelona. Real Madrid are also heavy favourites to win La Liga again this season, with their usual main challenger being Barcelona, followed by the constant outsider, Atlético Madrid.

However, here we will focus on the top scorer title and who the main candidates are to claim the Golden Boot title the 2024/2025 season.

Artem Dovbyk - here in the Ukrainian national team

Artem Dovbyk won the Trofeo Pichichi last season

Top candidates to become the top scorer this season

Last season's Golden Boot winner, or rather Trofeo Pichichi as it is called in Spain specifically for La Liga, was somewhat surprisingly the Ukrainian Artem Dovbyk from Girona, with 24 goals. He has however left for Italian club Roma now, so he is out of the picture this time. The second placed top scorer was also a surprise, as the Norwegian Alexander Sørloth scored 23 goals for his Villarreal team. Unlike Dovbyk, Sørloth remains in La Liga but has switched team to Atlético Madrid. In a shared third place, we found two more expected names in Jude Bellingham and Robert Lewandowski, both with 19 goals each.

So, who can win the title this season? We'll start by going through the three big clubs and their strongest offensive weapons, as the winner usually comes from one of these clubs, even though that wasn't the case last season, and then continue by listing the challengers from the smaller clubs.

Jude Bellingham

Best offensive weapons at Real Madrid

There is no doubt that Real Madrid is the strongest team in La Liga right now as the team is packed with star players. Last season, however, they lacked a truly prolific goal scorer like they had in previous seasons with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. But they have remedied that now as the endless transfer saga with Kylian Mbappé has finally come to an end, and he has signed for Real Madrid.

Given how strong Real Madrid already was last season, the big question is how good they will be with Kylian Mbappé in the team. Mbappé is undoubtedly one of the top three forwards in the world right now, perhaps even the best, and in a league where many goals are scored, he is sure to score a lot of goals this season. However, it can sometimes take a while for a new player to adapt to a new team and league, which might possibly hamper his goal-scoring at the start of the season, but as he becomes more comfortable, the goals will surely start rolling in.

Jude Bellingham was Real's top scorer last season and had an absolutely brilliant first half of the season, scoring plenty of goals despite not even being a striker, though his goal-scoring stagnated as the season progressed. Bellingham will surely continue to score quite a few goals, but he will likely assist more to Mbappé now.

Besides the two mentioned players, Real also has the three young Brazilians Vinicius Júnior, Rodrygo, and Endrick. The first two have been at Real for a few seasons now, and while both are very skilled forwards, they are not players who consistently score goals match after match, which means neither is likely to finish at the top of the scoring charts by the end of the season. The goal-scoring expectations for the prodigy Endrick, who just turned 18, are higher. There is no doubt that he can become a great goal scorer in the future, but this season he will likely be gradually integrated into the team, and it may take some time before he is a regular starter.

Lamine Yamal

Barcelona's best forwards

Barcelona's 17-year-old prodigy Lamine Yamal had his big breakthrough during this summer's European Championship, where despite his young age, he was one of the tournament's best players as Spain won gold. Everyone agrees that he is a divinely talented player who can become a crazy good football player, but despite his enormous talent, he is not yet a player who scores goals consistently. However, it's worth remembering that Lionel Messi wasn't either when he was 17. In fact, Yamal has scored more goals than Messi at a comparable age, so it wouldn't be surprising if he develops into a great goal scorer already this season.

The player Barcelona primarily relies on for goals is still Robert Lewandowski. On Lewandowski's downside is that he is getting older now, turning 36 next week, and he hasn't been the prolific goal scorer during his two seasons at Barca as he was earlier in his career. However, the Polish player is the clear favourite to be Barcelona's top scorer again this season, and if Barcelona has a good season with its extremely talented team, it could be enough goals for him to become the league's top scorer.

In addition to Yamal and Lewandowski, Ferran Torres and Raphinha are the team's other top forwards. Both are very good footballers, but neither are consistent goal scorers, and they are unlikely to have much to do with the Golden Boot race.

Barcelona also has many talented attacking midfielders who can score plenty of goals. For example, they have brought in Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig this summer, who, like Yamal, was brilliant in the European Championship. Fermin Lopez had a fantastic Olympics in Paris, where Spain also won gold, scoring six goals and finishing second in the Olympic scoring charts. And, of course, players like Pedri and Ilkay Gündogan shouldn't be forgotten either. All of them are fantastic attacking players, but even though they will collectively score a lot of goals and assist on even more, none of them are likely candidates to win the top scorer title.

Julián Álvarez

Atlético Madrid's strongest offensive players

The top scorer for Atlético Madrid last season was veteran Antoine Griezmann, who scored 16 goals, his best goal-scoring season since 2017/2018. The 33-year-old is still a reliable scorer, although he rarely scores in large quantities. In fact, his only top scorer title was at the 2016 European Championship.

But there are two other players Atlético Madrid hopes will score plenty of goals this season, and both are new signings. The first is the Argentine Julián Álvarez, a high-profile signing from Manchester City who was recently confirmed. Alvarez has shown at City that he is a capable goal scorer, but due to fierce competition in the forward line from Erling Braut Haaland, he has rarely been a regular starter. With the move to Madrid, he hopes for more regular playing time and thus a chance to prove he is a top-class scorer. It remains to be seen how quickly he can start delivering goals, but if he gets going early, there could be a lot of goals from Alvarez already this season.

The other new signing expected to score many goals is the Norwegian Alexander Sørloth. He has had a career with ups and downs; he won the top scorer title in the Turkish Süper Lig in the 2019/2020 season, which led to a move to RB Leipzig. His time in the Bundesliga was not a success, but he did relatively well on loan at Real Sociedad, although it wasn't enough for them to sign him permanently. Before last season, he was signed by Villarreal, and there his form really picked up again, enough to finish second in the scoring charts with 23 goals. This prompted Atlético to sign him for a reported sum of 32 million euros. Logically, he should be able to score even more goals in a better team, but the competition in the forward line is much tougher at his new club, so it's not certain he will be a regular starter.

Atlético Madrid also has forwards like João Félix and the highly talented Samu Omorodion, but there are rumours of sales or loans to other clubs for both players. And even if they stay, it's doubtful they can outcompete the other forwards, so playing time may be limited.

Best forwards from other teams

Although it's harder to score many goals while playing for one of the smaller clubs in La Liga, there are still good forwards who can surprise, as was proven last season when the top two spots were taken by players from smaller clubs. If Artem Dovbyk had stayed at Girona, he would undoubtedly have been a candidate again this season, even though the team has been weakened by the loss of many key players. Without the Ukrainian in the league, the following players are the primary ones who could hope to fight in the top of the scoring charts.

Nico Williams, Athletic Bilbao

For anyone who followed the European Championship, we know what an incredibly talented player Athletic Bilbao's Nico Williams is. He hasn't been a consistent goal scorer in La Liga so far, but with the confidence from the European Championship in his luggage, he could very well score many more goals than the five league goals he scored last season.

Iñaki Williams, Athletic Bilbao

Of course, we must also mention Nico's older brother Iñaki Williams, who is a proven stronger scorer than his younger brother, as evidenced by his 12 goals last season. However, there's much less development potential for this 30-year-old compared to Nico, but he will undoubtedly score many goals.

Ante Budimir, Osasuna

The Croatian Ante Budimir had a strong season last year at Osasuna, scoring 17 goals and finishing fifth in the top scorer rankings. Osasuna is a solid mid-table team, and if they have a decent season, Budimir could achieve a similar goal tally again this season.

Gerard Moreno, Villarreal

The 32-year-old Gerard Moreno is a reliable goal-scorer who can have a standout season, as he did in Villarreal's 2020/2021 season when he scored 23 goals. Last season, he "only" scored 11 goals, but with Sørloth gone, he is the primary player the team relies on to score goals again.

Mikel Oyarzabal, Real Sociedad

Real Sociedad's Mikel Oyarzabal was part of the Spanish national team that won gold at the European Championship in Germany this summer, and he even scored a goal there, despite not getting much play time. Oyarzabal is a very respected offensive player but does not score too many goals. Last season, his result was nine goals, and his best season saw him score 13. So, he might not be a hot candidate to win the Pichichi Trophy, but he could still finish high up.

Borja Mayoral, Getafe

The former Real Madrid talent Borja Mayoral really found his scoring touch last season when he scored 15 goals for Getafe. Now that he's 27 years old, it doesn't necessarily mean he's stopped developing as a goal-scorer, and it's not unthinkable that he could increase his goal tally even further.

Hugo Duro, Valencia

Another former talent who blossomed last season was Hugo Duro, also with a past in both Real Madrid and Getafe. Duro scored 13 goals for Valencia and could improve that result even more if both he and Valencia have a good season.

So who will be La Liga's top scorer?

There's no doubt about who is the favourite to be La Liga's top scorer this season, and of course, we're talking about Kylian Mbappé. It seems that only a serious injury could stop him from claiming the title. Of course, anything can happen in football, but it would be very surprising if he doesn't come out on top when the final match is played.

Our top challenger is Robert Lewandowski. Sure, he's getting older, but he's still in good physical condition and remains a very capable goal-scorer. Barcelona needs to improve as a team compared to last season but given all the incredibly talented players in the squad, they could very well do that and perhaps even seriously challenge Real Madrid for the league title.

Our second challenger is Julián Álvarez. Much will depend on how quickly he can settle into the team and start scoring goals. Atlético still has a strong squad, and the signing of Alvarez has the potential to be the success that Atlético fans are hoping for-the missing piece that could allow them to challenge Real and Barcelona again.

We'll also mention Lamine Yamal. It's likely a bit too early in his career for him to challenge a player like Mbappé in terms of goals already this season, but we believe Yamal will make significant strides as a goal-scorer quickly. It's not impossible that we could see a new Messi vs. Ronaldo situation in the future between Mbappé and Yamal.