He is a striker in form, netting well over a goal a game, scoring in almost every match this season. He is leading his club’s title charge and taking his country to the brink of the World Cup.
Usually this would be a remarkable introduction for any one player.
But this season it applies to not one, not two, but three of Europe’s leading strikers.
Kylian Mbappe has hit 17 goals in 13 matches for Real Madrid and France this season. But the 26-year-old is only Europe’s third-most prolific striker.
Harry Kane, 32, has bagged 19 goals in 12 matches for Bayern Munich and England.
And Erling Haaland, 25, leads the way on 21 goals in 12 games for Manchester City and Norway.
As you do.
It is early in the season but it already seems to be a three-horse race for the European Golden Shoe – awarded on a points system to the top striker in European club football.
And only about half their goals have come in the league.
The three are currently far above any of their European competitors.
Paris St-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele, who won the Ballon d’Or recently, has only played five times this season because of injury.
Alexander Isak has not found full fitness yet after missing the start of the season at Newcastle as he tried to force through his £125m move to Liverpool.
And Robert Lewandowski, now 37, has more substitute appearances than starts for Barcelona this season.
Viktor Gyokeres has not been able to keep pace either. Last season, he won the Gerd Muller Trophy – unlike the Golden Shoe, awarded solely on goals rather than a points system – scoring 63 goals for Sporting and Sweden. But he was never going to match those numbers playing at a higher domestic standard with Arsenal.
- Is ‘humble’ Kane still England’s undervalued superstar?
- The stats that say Haaland will run away with Golden Boot
- Mbappe scores in France win – but is he Europe’s best striker?
How do the three compare this season?
Haaland has been the most prolific of the trio this season with his 21 goals in 12 games coming at an average of one every 47 minutes.
Kane’s total of 19 in 12 equates to one every 52 minutes, and Mbappe is averaging one every 67 minutes with his 17 goals in 13 games.
Mbappe has four assists, with the other two notching three each.
In a comparison of their general play, the stats show – as you might expect – Kane and Mbappe are involved a lot more than Haaland.
Mbappe (772) has touched the ball more than Kane (445) and Haaland (257) combined.
A much higher percentage of Haaland’s touches come in the penalty area too.
Haaland has only created six chances for team-mates, compared to Mbappe’s 38 and Kane’s 27.
It is a similar story when comparing the number of passes completed by each forward – 97 by Haaland, 456 by Mbappe and 231 by Kane.
The Norwegian has won 25 aerial duels – with 12 for Kane and three for Mbappe.
Kane is the most lethal goalscorer of the three this season with 42% of his 45 shots resulting in a goal, followed closely by Haaland’s 39% of 54 shots – while Mbappe has netted 22% of his 77 efforts.
In club football, Kane has been the most prolific this season – as he has just one goal for England, with Haaland netting nine for Norway and Mbappe scoring three times for France.
All three nations are top of their World Cup qualifying groups with maximum points.
Now BBC Sport will look at all three separately – and assess what records they could break.
Kane chases league scoring record
England’s top goalscorer Kane has notched 18 goals for Bayern in 10 games this season, including 11 in the Bundesliga and four in the Champions League – plus that one goal for his country.
He has netted 47% of Bayern’s 38 goals this season.
Only Augsburg and amateurs Andorra have kept him out in his 19 matches for club and country so far.
He has hat-tricks against Leipzig and Hoffenheim.
If Kane kept this Bundesliga scoring rate up all season, he would end on 62 goals. Nobody has ever scored that many in any of Europe’s major leagues.
The Bundesliga record is the 41 that Lewandowski netted for Bayern in 2020-21.
Tottenham’s all-time top scorer has won Germany’s version of the Golden Boot in both seasons for Bayern, with 36 goals and then 26 goals, to add to his three Premier League awards.
A repeat this time around would make him only the second person to win three in a row in the Bundesliga after Lewandowski (who won five in a row).
That would also put him joint third on the list of award winners, along with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Ulf Kirsten.
Lewandowski and Bayern icon Gerd Muller won seven each. As Kane is 32, he is unlikely to reach that figure.
Mbappe going for eighth consecutive Golden Boot
Mbappe has struck 14 times in 10 matches for Real this season – and three in three for France.
That is 54% of Real’s 28 goals in all competitions. Only against Mallorca has he failed to strike – and he has one hat-trick in the Champions League against Kairat Almaty.
If Mbappe kept up his scoring rate of nine goals in eight games in La Liga, he would end up with 42 goals.
Only Lionel Messi (twice) and Cristiano Ronaldo have ever scored more in a Spanish top-flight season.
He is chasing an eighth consecutive league Golden Boot after winning six in a row in Ligue 1 for PSG (for whom he is their all-time top scorer) and then last year’s La Liga one at Real.
In the Champions League, he has netted five goals in two games.
That goal rate is clearly unsustainable over a whole season but it gives him a chance of hunting down Ronaldo’s record of 17 in a Champions League season (2013-14).
If Real were to get to the final (and not need the knockout rounds play-off) Mbappe would have another 13 matches in the competition.
He will also hope to be France’s all-time top goalscorer by the time this season is out. He has scored 53 goals, only four off Olivier Giroud’s record.
Hundred for Haaland?
Even by Haaland’s very high standards, this season has been something else.
Norway’s all-time leading goalscorer has scored 12 goals in nine games for City. Tottenham are the only team to keep him out.
But for Norway, it is a sensational nine in three matches (including five against Moldova and three against Israel) to take them to the brink of a first World Cup since 1998, before he was born.
He has scored 12 times during the whole World Cup qualifying campaign so far, twice as many as any other European player.
He is the joint top scorer in qualifying worldwide – along with Qatar’s Almoez Ali.
Ali has played 13 games – to Haaland’s six.
Haaland has set the bar so high that his total of nine goals in the first seven Premier League games of the season is only his third best at this stage in his four seasons in England.
He had netted 11 by now in 2022 and 10 last season.
His current league scoring rate over the course of the season would bring him 49 goals. The Premier League record is the 36 he scored in 2022-23.
Dixie Dean’s record of 60 top-flight goals for Everton in 1927–28 will probably never be broken.
If we only count his City stats this season, he is on course to score about 70 club goals in all competitions if they reach the Champions League final (without him even playing in the Carabao Cup or FA Cup).
If you allow us to get a bit silly and including his overall goalscoring rate for club and country, he could end the season on more than 100 goals…
Who do people think is the best?
With three players in such good form, opinion on the best is bound to be divided.
Former Scotland, Chelsea and Everton winger Pat Nevin, a BBC Sport pundit, said: “It is no denigration of Erling Haaland, who is one of the great players in world football.
“In England, they admire Harry and all the rest of it, but he also should be considered one of the greats in world football. Maybe he’s not seen as that in England, but he is.
“When you are watching a game when Haaland is at his best, your eye is always drawn to him. It seems like there are 21 footballers out there and Haaland.
“If you go and watch Harry Kane at Bayern, one of the top teams in the world, it is Kane and 10 others. He is a force of nature. And not just in Bundesliga games. I am talking Champions League games. He is a colossus.”
Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague, meanwhile, thinks Mbappe and Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal are the best two players of any position in the world right now.
While Manchester City team mate Nico Gonzalez believes Haaland is “the best striker in the world”.
So what do you think?
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