Erling Haaland is ahead of 2022 leader Kylian Mbappe with a healthy enough gap, while Karim Benzema is set to leave the young duo to fight among themselves.

Mbappe led the 2022 top goalscorers list by six goals from the old man at Barcelona. But he could not win France the World Cup, the daft fraud.

The criteria: All club goals in all competitions for clubs in Europe’s top five leagues.

10) Youssef En-Nesyri – Sevilla (16 goals)
Only an eight-goal La Liga season for the Moroccan, who destroyed Manchester United in the Europa League.

9) Jonathan David – Lille (17 goals)
Ending a fine season with a strike against Marseille and two versus Nantes, which heightens the chances of him landing at a mid-table Premier League club near you.

8) Harry Kane – Spurs (18 goals)
The fraudulent one-season wonder has produced a 30-goal Premier League campaign for this Tottenham team. Is he actually… good? His stats this season are ridiculous.

7) Marcus Rashford – Man Utd (19 goals)
The Tories’ least favourite football personality not named Gary Lineker is thriving. The youngest English or Man Utd player to score 25 goals in European competition is not half bad. Despite playing on one leg for the late stages of the FA Cup final, United still couldn’t be without their top scorer.

6) Lautaro Martinez – Inter Milan (20 goals)
After going eight games without a goal between early March and mid-April, Martinez has scored 10 and assisted three more in 13 games for the shock Champions League finalists. No wonder he is being linked with Manchester United.

5) Victor Osimhen – Napoli (21 goals)
Scored the title-clinching equaliser against Udinese, then one more for good measure in the procession of a win over Fiorentina, before adding his 24th, 25th and 26th Serie A goals of the season against Bologna and Sampdoria.

4) Alexandre Lacazette – Lyon (21 goals)
Scoring one of two four-goal hauls – poor Elye Wahi – in a ludicrous game between Lyon and Montpellier certainly boosted the numbers of Lacazette, who eventually came up two goals short in the French Golden Boot race.

3) Kylian Mbappe – PSG (21 goals)
No goals in defeats to Bayern Munich, Rennes, Lyon or Nice kept him well off the pace in 2023, though ten goals in the last eight Ligue Un games put the bully back on a flat track. Finished the Ligue Un season as champion and top scorer.

2) Karim Benzema – Real Madrid (22 goals)
A hat-trick of hat-tricks in April against Real Valladolid, Barcelona and Almeria for a player who only continues to improve at 35. Scored in his final appearance for Real Madrid on Sunday before, most likely, swanning off to Saudi.

1) Erling Haaland – Manchester City (25 goals)
A 52-goal debut campaign. This is a ridiculous season from Haaland and the big one is still to come.

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