Champions League 2022/23 – The Race for the Golden Boot
Champions League action resumes next week with matchday 3. As we near the halfway mark of the group stages, we detail the Golden Boot contenders and the odds the bookmakers currently offer on them.
The race for the Golden Boot in the Champions League is fiercely contested, and the winner rightly feels proud of the achievement. In recent years, the two names featured most are Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but new characters are vying to claim the prestigious Golden Boot award.
Christiano Ronaldo is the tournament’s top scorer and has won the Golden Boot a record seven times. However, he plays his football with Manchester United, who don’t feature in this year’s competition. Theoretically, he could join a Champions League team in January, but you’d imagine even he wouldn’t be able to make up the lost ground in the race.
Join us as we examine the contenders and what odds you can expect to receive if you bet on them at Champions League betting sites.
Harry Kane – Tottenham Hotspurs – 33/1
29-year-old Harry Kane is no stranger to winning the Golden Boot award in his domestic league, having won it three times in his career (2016,2017 and 2021). However, his last triumph in 2021 was memorable as he also picked up the Playmaker award for providing the most assists in the season.
The reason football betting fans can get a hefty price of 33/1 for the England captain is that he is yet to score in this year’s competition. Tottenham won their game against Marseille 2-0, but Kane was kept quiet. Spur’s lost their other match against Sporting 2-0.
Tottenham sits second in their group.
de Andrade Richarlison – Tottenham – 33/1
Also priced at 33/1 is Harry Kane’s teammate, Richarlison. The former Everton man moved down south to join Tottenham and has been introduced slowly into the team, used as a substitute four times and making just two starts. However, the 25-year-old has been in good scoring form for Brazil, scoring four goals in three starts.
Richarlison was sensational in Tottenham’s 2-0 win against Marseille taking the man of the match award with two goals, his first for the club. However, Richarlison’s odds are high as he faces an uphill task to get into the Tottenham team with Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min often ahead of him in team selection. However, Son had been out of form and was dropped, his response was to score a thirteen-minute hattrick on his return to the pitch against Leicester City.
Karim Benzema – Real Madrid 28/1
Despite being in the twilight of his career, the 34-year-old is like a fine wine and seems to be getting better with age. Last season Benzema enjoyed his best-ever season at Real Madrid, scoring 44 goals and providing 15 assists in 46 games, helping them win the Champions League, La Liga, and Spanish Super Cup. He is in great form, too, this season with 16 goals in 22 matches for club and country.
With such great numbers, you would expect his odds to be lower. However, he has yet to score in the Champions League this campaign, playing just 30 minutes in Europe’s premier competition.
Junior Neymar – Paris Saint-Germain 18/1
At 18/1 with bet365, Neymar is well worth considering as the 30-year-old is in fine form for his club, netting ten goals and claiming seven assists in only nine games at the start of the season. The Brazilian is one of the favourites to claim the Golden Boot when World Cup betting as he has scored 74 goals in 119 appearances for Brazil, a total only beaten by Pele (74 goals in 92 games). However, when Neymar was injured, it proved costly for his national team, and he was on the sidelines when Brazil was hammered 7-1 by Germany.
PSG have won both their matches so far, beating Juventus 2-0 and Maccabi Haifa 1-3. Neymar scored his only Champions League goal this campaign in the win over Maccabi Haifa, scoring in the 88th minute from a Marco Verratti assist.
Lionel Messi – Paris Saint-Germain 22/1
Lionel Messi is no stranger to the Golden Boot award, having lifted the trophy on six occasions, just one less than Christiano Ronaldo. It’s an open secret that Ronaldo fears Messi equalling his record, especially with Ronaldo being forced to watch on as he plays in the Europa League.
Messi had a below-par season last campaign by his standards, scoring six goals in the league in 26 appearances, but did achieve five goals in seven games in the Champions League. For comparison, he scored 30 league goals in his last season with Barcelona the year before. However, the 35-year-old is off the mark in Europe this campaign, scoring and assisting in the 3-1 win against Maccabi Haifa.
Mohamed Salah – Liverpool 20/1
Mohamed Salah is no stranger to receiving the Premier League’s Golden Boot award. The Egyptian shared the prize with Tottenham’s Son Heung-min after scoring 23 league goals. The 30-year-old also won the award in 2018 (32 goals) and 2019 (22 goals).
Liverpool reached the final of last year’s competition, and Salah’s eight goals were crucial in getting there. Although he has one goal in this campaign, he opened the scoring in the 17th minute in the 2-1 win against Ajax. His team is currently third in Group A after a heavy 4-1 loss against Napoli, the early leaders.
Kylian Mbappe – Paris Saint-Germain 7/2
While his teammates Neymar and Messi are fast approaching the end of their careers, 23-year-old Kylian Mbappé has plenty of years left in him, and it seems unfathomable that the Frenchman won’t win the Golden Boot at some point. Last season he came close, just two away from the eventual winner. He lit up the Camp Nou with a memorable hattrick against Barcelona in the last-16.
He is in great form this season, scoring both goals in the 2-1 win against Juventus and scored in the 88th minute in the 3-1 win over Maccabi Haifa. He currently averages a goal every 60 minutes in the Champions League, the equal second-best goals to minutes ratio.
Robert Lewandowski – Barcelona 10/3
Lewandowski is no stranger to the Golden Boot. His 15 goals in 10 matches in 2019-20 finally broke the Ronaldo and Messi dominance that had lasted 12 years. However, the 34-year-old fancied a change this season and moved to Spain with Barcelona after spending his entire career in Germany with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.
Despite his advanced age, he is another player that shows no sign of slowing down and has started this season on fire, scoring 17 goals in just 21 games in all competitions for club and country. In the Champions League, he already has three goals after scoring a hattrick in the 5-1 demolition of Viktoria Plzen and football betting fans might feel he is worth a punt.
Although his former club Bayern beat Barcelona 2-0, you expect them both to qualify, although Inter in the same group could cause an upset.
Erling Haaland – Manchester City 11/8
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland is the current holder of the Golden Boot and the favourite to regain his title, and it’s not difficult to understand why. The then 21-year-old scored ten goals for Borussia Dortmund, enough to claim the accolade. He has since moved to Manchester City, who, with respect to Dortmund, are likely to create more chances for the youngster.
Haaland has had an incredible start to his City career, scoring 14 goals in his first ten games and 11 goals in his first seven Premier League appearances, breaking Mick Quinn’s record, which had stood since 1992.
He is already smashing records in the Champions League, becoming the first player to score multiple times on his debut for three different clubs. He scored three goals for Salzburg against Genk, two goals for Dortmund v PSG and two goals v Sevilla for Manchester City. His winner against his former club Dortmund on matchday 2 made it 26 goals in 21 Champions League games.
If Haaland stays fit, even at 11/8, he is worth backing, scoring a goal on average every 53 minutes. Manchester City has a home tie against FC Copenhagen on Wednesday. Expect to see his odds tumble if he scores in that tie.
In our blog section, we highlight bets you should consider for Champions League matches, so ensure you bookmark us and check back often.
