Champions League top scorers 2023/24: The latest Golden Boot standings

The race to be named Champions League top scorer for 2023/24 is proving to be an exciting one again, as Europe’s best strikers chase the prestigious honour.

Erling Haaland is looking to fire Manchester City to back-to-back European Cup wins under Pep Guardiola after the Premier League champions won the trophy for the first time last season.

He is hoping to join Champions League greats Ruud van Nistelrooy, Eusebio, Ferenc Puskas and Jean-Pierre Papin in becoming a three-time UCL Golden Boot winner.

Kylian Mbappe, like Haaland, is fast rising up the rankings of top Champions League goalscorers, and the PSG ace is likely to pose a major threat to the Man City forward.

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You can never discount Robert Lewandowski either, with the Poland international having been a prolific goalscorer in the Champions League for more than a decade with Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and now Barcelona. Harry Kane, now of Bayern Munich, and Napoli hitman Victor Osimhen will be among the other strikers looking to make their mark.

This page will display the Champions League top scorers for the 2023/24 season, updated after each matchday.

Champions League top scorers 2023/24

There are two players tied in first place in the list of Champions League top scorers for the 2023/24 season, with five stars sitting just one goal behind.

The UCL group stage concluded last year after six dramatic matchdays and, after a long break, the tournament is returning with the last 16 across February and March.

Those eight last-16 ties were set during December’s draw, with holders Manchester City paired with Copenhagen, one of the teams who helped to eliminate Manchester United.

Napoli vs Barcelona, Porto vs Arsenal and Inter vs Atletico Madrid were the other standout ties, while Real Madrid may not have it easy against RB Leipzig.

The opening leg of the Copenhagen vs Man City, RB Leipzig vs Real Madrid PSG vs Real Sociedad and Lazio vs Bayern Munich ties took place first.

Phil Foden was among the scorers for Man City, as they won 3-1 in Denmark. It was Foden’s fourth goal of the competition so far and continued a strong recent run of form in front of goal which has also seen him score a hat-trick at Brentford in the Premier League and score twice against Man Utd in the derby.

However, Erling Haaland was unable to add to his tally in the Copenhagen match, with Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva getting the other two goals.

Kylian Mbappe moved closer to the top as he scored in PSG’s 2-0 first-leg win over Real Sociedad. Ciro Immobile was on the scoresheet in the other game, as Lazio earned a surprise 1-0 win over Bayern Munich, with Harry Kane kept out.

But Kane was back with a bang in the second leg on Tuesday, scoring twice as Bayern won 3-0 to progress 3-1 on aggregate. Mbappe matched his feat on the same night with a brace as PSG defeated Real Sociedad 2-1 to win 4-1 overall.

Those goals mean two star strikers are now joint at the top of the scoring standings.

The other two ties will conclude on Wednesday.

A further four first-leg matches also shook up the scoring standings. PSV played out a 1-1 draw with Dortmund and Inter faced Atletico Madrid. A 1-0 win for the Italian team meant Antoine Griezmann and Alvaro Morata were unable to add to their respective goal tallies, with Marko Arnautovic netting the winner for the hosts.

The final two first-leg ties saw Porto beat Arsenal 1-0 thanks to a last-gasp strike from Galeno, who now joins the group of leaders in the scoring standings. In the other game, Napoli drew 1-1 with Barcelona, as Victor Osimhen and Robert Lewandowski exchanged strikes.

Arsenal, Atletico, Barcelona and Dortmund will need to wait until the March 12/13 matchday to see if they can progress.

Rasmus Hojlund saw his hopes of becoming the Champions League top scorer brought to an end after Man Utd crashed out of the competition in the group stage.

Man Utd lost 1-0 at home to Bayern Munich on Matchday 6 to ensure finished bottom of Group A, ending their European campaign and removing any further chance for Hojlund to add to his season tally of five UCL goals.

Hojlund remained one of four co-leaders on five goals as the group stage came to an end, though knew he was all but certain to be overtaken as the tournament progressed.

Manchester City star Erling Haaland is looking to defend his Golden Boot title in this competition and he is also one of the players currently setting the pace.

Two of the other stars near the top both play for Atletico Madrid, with Alvaro Morata setting the early pace in the scoring standings before more recently being joined by team-mate Antoine Griezmann in the leading group.

Jude Bellingham, Gabriel Jesus and Joao Felix are among the other goalscoring stars who have made bright starts to the competition and they remain in contention for glory.

Morata was one of the players sitting out in front after scoring twice as Atletico Madrid thrashed 10-man Celtic 6-0, having previously netted a double in the 3-2 triumph against Feyenoord.

Griezmann also netted a double in the huge home win over Celtic as the Spanish club impressively topped Group E with 14 points.

Manchester United striker Hojlund was yet to score in the Premier League by the time his team suffered UCL elimination in December, but he made his mark in this competition.

The Denmark international netted a double in his side’s dramatic 4-3 away loss to former club Copenhagen, though it was still a desperately disappointing night for United as they suffered defeat in a seven-goal thriller.

He had gone six matches without a goal for United across all competitions prior to scoring that brace.

For Hojlund, the two matches for Man Utd against Copenhagen – the team he started his career with – were hugely important nights, though it was defender Harry Maguire who scored the winner for United in the home clash, with Hojlund making up for his goalless night with a first-half double in the away fixture.

Manchester United striker Hojlund had previously netted an impressive double even as his side suffered a miserable 3-2 home defeat against Galatasaray in Matchday 2, while the Denmark star also scored against Bayern Munich in United’s opener.

Last season’s top scorer Haaland did not get up and running for the tournament until Man City travelled to play Young Boys in MD3, but he impressed with two goals in a 3-1 victory.

Julian Alvarez was the Man City player who had made the bigger impression over the first two matchdays.

Haaland came into MD4 meeting with Young Boys at home as an injury doubt after coming off at half-time against Bournemouth in the Premier League in the previous match. But he ended up starting and adding a further two goals, powering in a penalty as well as a long-range strike to continue his fine form this season.

Both Haaland and Alvarez were on target as Man City fought back from two goals down to beat RB Leipzig 3-2 on MD5. Phil Foden also struck, as a first-half double from Lois Openda for Leipzig was overhauled in a thriller.

But neither Man City striker played in the 3-2 win at Red Star Belgrade, with qualification already secured.

One of the top performances so far has come from Evanilson, who scored a hat-trick for Porto as they came from behind to defeat Antwerp 4-1. He also scored in the 2-0 return victory for the Portuguese club to reach four goals for the campaign.

His team-mate Galeno was also on four goals after the group stage before increasing his tally with a key strike in the last-16 tie with Arsenal.

Prior to his fine last-16 performances, Mbappe scored in PSG’s wins over Dortmund and AC Milan, before a late, controversial penalty in the home draw with Newcastle gave him a third goal.

Joao Felix scored a double as Barcelona thrashed Antwerp 5-0 on MD1, with Robert Lewandowski also opening his account for the campaign.

It was Ferran Torres who struck for Barca in MD2, as they won 1-0 away to Porto, and the former Man City attacker was on target again as Barca edged to a 2-1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk on MD3.

But there was a shock result in MD4, as Shakhtar beat Barca 1-0, with Danylo Sikan scoring his third goal of the season, a total he increased to four on MD6.

Barca got back on track with a 2-1 home MD5 win over Porto, with Joao Felix getting the winner, while Torres scoring in a 3-2 loss to Antwerp to conclude the group stage.

A last-gasp goal from Bellingham got Real Madrid off to a winning start, as they beat Union Berlin 1-0 in Group C, and he was on target again in the 3-2 win at Napoli and 2-1 win in Portugal against Braga.

Bellingham later moved up to four goals as Real Madrid beat Napoli 4-2 in an entertaining encounter

It continues a fine start to the season for England midfielder Bellingham, who has also thrived in La Liga.

Kane was back in England when Bayern took on Manchester United, getting an assist in the 1-0 win. Back at the start of the campaign he was among four scorers for the German side as they won their dramatic home clash with United 4-3 on Matchday 1.

Bayern had to come from behind in MD2, but ultimately battled to a 2-1 win in Copenhagen, with Mathys Tel scoring the winner to move on to two UCL goals.

Kane and Jamal Musiala also reached two goals each for the campaign on MD3, as Bayern won 3-1 away to Galatasaray.

In-form Kane was the Bayern hero once more on MD4, scoring a double in a 2-1 win over Galatasaray that secured top spot with two games to play.

Last season’s runners-up Inter grabbed a 1-1 draw away to Real Sociedad to start their campaign courtesy of a late equaliser from Lautaro Martinez. It was those two teams who ended up progressing from Group D.

Inter drew 3-3 at Benfica on MD5, with Joao Mario scoring a first-half hat-trick for the hosts before the Italian side came back to salvage a dramatic draw.

Jesus scored in all four of the group matches he has started in the UCL this season, including his strike as Arsenal trashed Lens 6-0 on MD5.

Real Madrid striker Joselu scored twice in a dramatic 3-2 away win over Union Berlin on MD6 to enter the standings for the first time this season.

There is still everything to play for at the top of the goalscoring charts in Europe’s top club competition, with Haaland right in the mix once again.

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.

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.

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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.

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

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.

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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.

The highest Champions League goalscorer has netted at least 10 times during each of the last 13 seasons.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

Benfica, Man Utd and Bayern have all had the UCL top scorer seven times.