Champions League top scorers 2024/25: Lewandowski lead reduced by goal rivals

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 11 Dec 2024 22:04 GMT
• 14 min read

The race to be named Champions League top scorer for the 2024/25 season is well under way, as Europe’s best strikers chase the prestigious honour.

Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe shared last season’s award after scoring eight times each for Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain respectively.

Mbappe has since swapped PSG for Real Madrid and the France star was expected to be a strong challenger in the Champions League Golden Boot race once again, as was England captain Kane. Both strikers, however, came into the new season having had disappointing Euro 2024 campaigns.

READ MORE: Premier League 2024/25 Top Scorers

Erling Haaland is always certain to be in the mix as well. He has topped the European Cup scoring standings twice before, once for Borussia Dortmund and then for current club Manchester City as part of their famous treble season in 2022/23.

After missing out to Kane and Mbappe last year, Haaland is trying again in his bid to match competition greats Ruud van Nistelrooy, Eusebio, Ferenc Puskas and Jean-Pierre Papin in becoming a three-time UCL Golden Boot winner.

There are other contenders to be the top Champions League scorer beyond those big three forwards.

As well as Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham are among the Real Madrid candidates hoping to score the most goals in the 2024/25 season as Carlo Ancelotti’s side bid to successfully defend their continental crown, which they earned by beating Dortmund at Wembley.

READ MORE: European Golden Shoe 2024/25 Standings

Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski is often prolific in the goalscoring charts in Europe’s top club competition, as is Mohamed Salah, who returns to the tournament with Liverpool after a year away.

Antoine Griezmann was prominent in the goal rankings for Atletico Madrid last season, as was Alvaro Morata, who is now representing his new club AC Milan this season.

As of the 2024/25 competition, there is an extended Champions League format as well, with more matches, more teams and – hopefully – more goals involved, making this year’s Golden Boot battle extremely intriguing.

READ MORE: Manchester United 2024/25 Top Scorers

This page will display the Champions League top scorers for the 2024/25 season, updated after each matchday.

Champions League top scorers 2024/25

Robert Lewandowski is first in the list of Champions League top scorers for the 2024/25 season, with a competitive Golden Boot battle now well under way.

Barcelona forward Lewandowski has raced on to seven Champions League goals from just six matches, meaning he sits top of the scoring standings in the competition so far this season.

Lewandowski and Barca took on his former club Borussia Dortmund away on Wednesday in their sixth match of the campaign, but the Poland striker was not among the scorers despite his side recording a dramatic 3-2 win, meaning the scoring standings have tightened up significantly during MD6.

Harry Kane was the early leader in the UCL Golden Boot race, but Lewandowski moved level with the Bayern Munich striker during MD4 of the league stage, and then claimed the outright lead in MD5.

Serhou Guirassy, Erling Haaland, Viktor Gyokeres, Florian Wirtz, Raphinha and Vinicius Junior are also making competitive bids to be named top scorer in the 2024/25 tournament.

But two of the players who were expected to contend when the competition started, Real Madrid attacker Kylian Mbappe and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah, have made slow starts to the continental campaign.

Indeed, there was huge pressure for Mbappe going into Tuesday's away match against last season's Europa League winners Atalanta. Not only did he want to improve on his poor goal tally so far, but Los Blancos found themselves in 24th place, with their hopes of reaching the next stage of the competition under threat.

Madrid ultimately managed to secure a crucial 3-2 away win, with Mbappe, Vinicius and Jude Bellingham on target.

That strike was also Mbappe's 50th career goal in the competition. However, it was not a perfect evening for Los Blancos, as the France striker had to leave the field with a first-half injury.

Kane, who had been in the lead since the first matchday of the tournament, was joined at the top of the scoring standings by three other players on MD4.

Sporting CP star Viktor Gyokeres claimed a share of first place when he netted a hat-trick as Ruben Amorim's side stunned Man City with a 4-1 victory as part of the Tuesday action in that matchweek.

And it became a four-man leading group in the Wednesday games, when Barcelona duo Lewandowski and Raphinha impressed in the Catalans' 5-2 away win over Red Star Belgrade.

Lewandowski scored twice and Raphinha was also on target as they joined Kane and Gyokeres on five goals each for the tournament.

There were some huge games in MD5, which with Bayern Munich edging out PSG and Sporting CP being thumped 5-1 by Arsenal after the exit of Amorim to Man Utd.

Aston Villa drew at home to Juventus while LIverpool beat Real Madrid 2-0 in a highly anticipated Anfield encounter.

Salah and Mbappe both missed penalties in the match, meaning the two star forwards surprisingly remained on just one goal each in the competition, tallies they would later improve.

Kane scored an astonishing four of his goals, three of which were penalties, when Bayern Munich thrashed Dinamo Zagreb 9-2 on the first night of UCL action this season.

That meant he had netted half of his winning total from the whole of last season's competition in a single game. He had scored a hat-trick in his previous Bundesliga outing coming into the Zagreb clash, and followed that up with another superb scoring performance.

Kane's Bayern team-mate Michael Olise also got in on the act with a double in his first UCL game since signing from Crystal Palace, a feat he repeated later in the competition against Shakhtar Donetsk.

However, Matchday 2 did not go as well for Kane and Bayern, as they were beaten 1-0 away to Aston Villa in a surprise defeat, allowing his goal rivals to edge closer to him in the scoring standings.

Despite that being a tough night for Bayern, Kane remains in a strong position on a UCL leaderboard that was being dominated by Bundesliga players in the early weeks.

Barcelona thrashed Bayern Munich 4-1, with the only consolation for Kane being that he scored the German side's goal to remain in sole possession of first place coming out of MD3.

Lewandowski continued his fine form with a goal in that game for the hosts, but Raphinha was the Barca star on the night with a hat-trick.

Bayern then earned 1-0 wins over Benfica and PSG but Kane did not net in either encounter and then missed MD6 through injury, all of which has allowed Lewandowski to seize the advantage.

As well as striking against Bayern, Lewandowski scored two of Barcelona's goals as they defeated Young Boys 5-0, extending his magnificent record in this competition.

Lewandowski then scored two of his side's three goals in a 3-0 win over Brest, passing 100 UCL goals overall in the process to join Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in an elite group of scorers.

Real Madrid facing Borussia Dortmund in a repeat of last year's final was the most eagerly anticipated match of the third round of games and it did not disappoint.

Los Blancos stormed back from two goals down to win 5-2, with Vinicius Junior, who netted in the final, tormenting BVB again, this time with a hat-trick.

Mbappe made a good start to the competition by getting off the mark immediately, helping Real Madrid to a 3-1 home win over Stuttgart. But all the headlines went to his rival in the scoring standings, Kane, on that crazy first night of the tournament due to the England star's four-goal haul in Munich.

Holders Madrid then suffered a shock defeat to Lille on MD2 before winning that Dortmund thriller. They then lost to AC Milan, although Vinicius did strike and he is significantly outperforming Mbappe so far.

Prior to his heroics against Man City, Gyokeres got up and running when he scored as Sporting CP beat Lille 2-0. He also netted in MD3 when the Portuguese team defeated Sturm Graz by the same scoreline.

Liverpool defeated Milan 3-1 at San Siro on MD1 despite a strike from Christian Pulisic, who has since moved up to three goals for the campaign.

Salah opened his account for the tournament on MD2, as the Reds eased past Bologna, and it was Darwin Nunez who got them a narrow MD3 win over RB Leipzig.

A penalty from Salah secured a win over Girona too, but Luis Diaz is Liverpool's top UCL scorer, after his hat-trick helped them to a thumping 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen on MD4.

Erling Haaland did not get off to a strong start. Man City and Inter contested a competitive 0-0 draw at the Etihad Stadium in a repeat of the 2023 final, with the in-form striker unable to get a goal despite playing the full 90 minutes.

Going into MD2, Haaland had started the Premier League campaign in electric form for Man City, scoring 10 goals in his first five top-flight games. City were eyeing goals as they faced Slovan Bratislava and Haaland will have been relieved to get off the mark after being denied by Inter in his opener. It proved a comfortable win for City.

Haaland then got his first double of this season's competition as Man City thrashed Sparta Prague 5-0 on MD3. He had been substituted by the time the hosts were awarded a late penalty, so could not complete his hat-trick.

City then had a disappointing night on MD4, with Phil Foden scoring their only goal, his third of the campaign, in a heavy loss to Sporting as Haaland missed a penalty.

But the Norway star bounced back with a double in a dramatic encounter against Feyenoord. Man City raced into a three-goal lead at home and still led by that margin with 15 minutes to go, but somehow drew the contest 3-3.

There was further disappointment in a 2-0 defeat to Juventus in MD6.

The trend of Bundesliga stars impressing has also seen Florian Wirtz contribute. He scored twice for Leverkusen as the German champions impressively thumped Feyenoord 4-0 on MD1 and netted again in the 1-1 draw at Brest.

Wirtz then added a MD5 double as Leverkusen bounced back from their heavy loss to Liverpool by thrashing Salzburg 5-0.

Jamie Gittens has made a big impact on the early scoring standings. He scored twice for Dortmund as last season's runners-up made an impressive start by defeating Club Brugge 3-0 in Belgium, while Serhou Guirassy also struck in that game.

Karim Adeyemi scored a first-half hat-trick to help Dortmund demolish Celtic 7-1, with Guirassy scoring twice.

Gittens and Guirassy were the players on target for Dortmund in a 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb in MD5 to ensure they both reached four goals.

Guirassy then made further progress in the scoring standings by moving up to six goals in the dramatic 3-2 home loss against Barcelona, a game in which fellow Golden Boot candidate Raphinha also scored to reach six strikes. However, it was a rare UCL match where Lewandowski was kept out.

Dusan Vlahovic and Benjamin Sesko both scored doubles as Juventus faced RB Leipzig in Germany. Juve won a thrilling contest 3-2.

As for Aston Villa, their famous win over Bayern was followed up with another win over Bologna, with Jhon Duran scoring in both those games, but there was disappointment for Unai Emery's men in a loss to Club Brugge.

However, Villa then got a creditable draw against Juventus before Duran was among the scorers again in MD6's 3-2 win over RB Leipzig.

With all teams having now played six games, we have moved well past the halfway point of the league stage and now have a good sense of who has started best in the scoring standings.

But there is still so long to go, with a huge chasing pack gathering behind the likes of Kane and Lewandowski. Given stars such as Salah and Mbappe are only on two goals so far, there will surely be plenty of movement in the scoring standings in the weeks that follow.

The group stage for 2024/25 started on Tuesday September 17, with the eagerly anticipated draw having taken place on August 29.

There are still some exciting league stage fixtures to be played over the next few matchdays, such as Manchester City facing Paris Saint-Germain.

Aston Villa, meanwhile, have a clash against Celtic to look forward to soon.

Champions League top scorers 2023/24

The top Champions League scorers in the 2023/24 season were Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe, who shared the award with eight goals each.

Neither of the players who shared the Golden Boot made it to the Champions League final last season, with that battle instead contested between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund after Bayern and PSG fell in the semi-finals.

Kane scored eight times in 12 appearances for Bayern, adding continental goals to his stunning Bundesliga season which saw him win the European Golden Shoe.

The former Tottenham striker had four goals in the group stage, two in the last 16 against Lazio, one in the quarter-final matches against Arsenal and another in the semi-finals against Madrid, where Bayern were ultimately eliminated late in a dramatic tie.

READ MORE: Premier League Assists Standings

Mbappe, meanwhile, had three goals in the groups for PSG, before netting three more times across two legs of the last-16 victory over Real Sociedad on his way to becoming his club's first player since George Weah (1994/95) to top the continental scoring standings.

He scored twice in the quarter-final victory over Barcelona, both goals coming in an impressive second-leg win, but then failed to find the net in either leg of the shock semi-final loss to Dortmund.

READ MORE: Most Assists In Europe 2024/25

Vinicius Junior scored in the final for Real Madrid and he shared third place with Man City's Erling Haaland and Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann, with that trio all registering six goals in the list of Champions League top scorers for 2023/24.

Champions League top scorers 2022/23

Erling Haaland topped the Champions League goalscoring rankings in 2022/23.

He netted 12 times for eventual winners Man City, though it was midfielder Rodri who scored the winner in the final against Inter.

READ MORE: Real Madrid 2024/25 Top Scorers

Haaland also did not score in either leg of the 5-1 aggregate semi-final win over Real Madrid, but still comfortably claimed his second UCL top scorer title due to his stunning form before that stage.

The striker was helped by his fantastic five-goal performance in a 7-0 round-of-16 second leg win for Man City over RB Leipzig.

Haaland also netted in both legs of the UCL quarter-final win over Bayern.

Mohamed Salah came in second place, scoring eight times in eight matches, helped by netting a group-stage hat-trick against Rangers.

But he and Liverpool were not part of the competition in 2023/24, after they missed out on a Premier League top-four finish. The Reds will return this season.

Haaland also topped the UCL scoring charts for Borussia Dortmund in 2020/21, netting 10 times on that occasion.

Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski have also been recent winners of the award.

Prior to that, there was an astonishing era of dominance from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

One of those two players won the award from every year between 2007 and 2019. That run was only briefly disrupted by Neymar in 2014/15, and even then he was only able to share the honour with Ronaldo and Messi, with all three players striking 10 times that season.

Until last year's slightly underwhelming winning totals from Kane and Mbappe, the highest Champions League goalscorer had netted at least 10 times in the competition for 13 straight seasons.

Prior to Kane and Mbappe, Lionel Messi was the last player to win the award while only scoring in single figures, finishing as top scorer in the 2009/10 competition with eight goals.

Champions League all-time goal records

Cristiano Ronaldo is the all-time Champions League top goalscorer.

The Portugal star scored 140 times in 183 matches, playing in the competition for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.

READ MORE: Chelsea 2024/25 Top Scorers

Lionel Messi is in second place with 129 goals, while Robert Lewandowski is the highest active UCL player in the rankings. He is third and fast closing on on a century of goals, with 94 to his name going into this season.

Ronaldo has scored the most goals in a single Champions League campaign, striking 17 times for Real Madrid in 2013/14. That included a goal in the 2014 Champions League final, as his side defeated city rivals Atletico Madrid in extra-time.

And Ronaldo has also become the Champions League top scorer on more occasions than anyone else.

READ MORE: Arsenal 2024/25 Top Scorers

Ronaldo is a seven-time UCL top scorer, putting him just ahead of great rival Lionel Messi, who topped the competition's scoring charts on six occasions.

Real Madrid and Barcelona have traditionally dominated the top scorer rankings. Madrid have had the golden boot winner 16 times dating back to the start of the European Cup, while Barca have had nine winners.

Bayern are now close behind Barca with eight, while Benfica and Man Utd have had the UCL top scorer seven times.