The race for the Golden Boot at Euro 2024 is heating up, with Georgia’s Georges Mikautadze leading on three goals at the end of the group stage.
Just six players have scored more than once in this year’s European Championship, meaning there will be plenty of jostling still to come in the race to be crowned the tournament’s top scorer.
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Here, The Athletic details the Golden Boot state of play, what the tiebreakers are if two or more players finish level on the highest number of goals and which players should really have scored more.
This article will be updated as the tournament progresses.
These are the top scorers at Euro 2024:
| Player | Country | Goals |
|---|---|---|
Georges Mikautadze | Georgia | 3 |
Niclas Fullkrug | Germany | 2 |
Jamal Musiala | Germany | 2 |
Cody Gakpo | Netherlands | 2 |
Ivan Schranz | Slovakia | 2 |
Razvan Marin | Romania | 2 |
Mikautadze scored in all three of Georgia’s group games — becoming the ninth player to achieve this feat in the history of the European Championship.
3 – Georgia's Georges Mikautadze is the 9th player in total to score in all 3 group matches of a EURO tournament after M. Platini 1984, A. Shearer 1996, H. Stoichkov 1996, S. Milosevic 2000, M. Baros 2004, R. van Nistelrooy 2004, G. Bale 2016 and C. Ronaldo 2021. Elite. pic.twitter.com/M6QhUL1trR
— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) June 26, 2024
Sixty-one players have scored one goal each and there have been seven own goals scored (all by different players).
If two or more players finish the tournament having scored the joint-highest number of goals, the player who has provided the most assists will win the Golden Boot. That is how Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo edged out Czech Republic’s Patrik Schick at Euro 2020. If there is still a tie, then the player who has played the fewest minutes in the tournament wins the award.
Nobody has ever won the Golden Boot more than once, which means Antoine Griezmann (2016) and Ronaldo (2020) have the chance to make history by becoming the first multiple winner — though neither player has scored at this edition yet.
A lot has been made of Romelu Lukaku’s poor form in front of goal at the tournament, with the Belgian missing several chances as his country battled to get out of Group E.
However, he is not the player who has most underperformed relative to his expected goals metric (xG) at Euro 2024. That unwanted title falls on France’s Griezmann, who has failed to find the net at the tournament despite his expected goals figure being 1.84.
Here are the 10 players who have underperformed the most in front of goal:
| Player | XG | Goals | Goals vs XG |
|---|---|---|---|
Antoine Griezmann (FRA) | 1.84 | 0 | -1.84 |
Romelu Lukaku (BEL) | 1.67 | 0 | -1.67 |
Cristiano Ronaldo (POR) | 1.32 | 0 | -1.32 |
Aleksandar Mitrovic (SRB) | 1.17 | 0 | -1.17 |
Kylian Mbappe (FRA) | 2.12 | 1 | -1.12 |
Bruno Petkovic (CRO) | 1.08 | 0 | -1.08 |
Orkun Kokcu (TUR) | 0.99 | 0 | -0.99 |
Andraz Sporar (SVN) | 0.98 | 0 | -0.98 |
Ante Budimir (CRO) | 0.82 | 0 | -0.82 |
Kai Havertz (GER) | 1.75 | 1 | -0.75 |
Griezmann tops the list largely due to his miss against Netherlands last Friday, with the 33-year-old finishing that match with an xG of 0.94 but failing to score.
At the other end of the spectrum, here are the 10 players who have overperformed the most relating to their xG at Euro 2024:
| Player | XG | Goals | Goals Vs XG |
|---|---|---|---|
Ivan Schranz (SVK) | 0.39 | 2 | 1.61 |
Jamal Musiala (GER) | 0.48 | 2 | 1.52 |
Cody Gakpo (NED) | 0.53 | 2 | 1.47 |
Niclas Fullkrug (GER) | 0.54 | 2 | 1.46 |
Razvan Marin (ROM) | 0.93 | 2 | 1.07 |
Erik Janza (SVN) | 0.04 | 1 | 0.96 |
Emre Can (GER) | 0.04 | 1 | 0.96 |
Michel Aebischer (SWI) | 0.07 | 1 | 0.93 |
Xherdan Shaqiri (SWI) | 0.07 | 1 | 0.93 |
Mattia Zaccagni (ITA) | 0.08 | 1 | 0.92 |
As you can see three of the top 10 are Germany players, with Switzerland the only other nation with more than one player on the list.
And while we are on the subject of goalscoring, here are a few stats to look out for over the next few weeks:
• Ronaldo will be desperate to score at a record-extending sixth European Championship. The Portuguese superstar has scored at Euro 2004 (two goals), Euro 2008 (one), Euro 2012 (three), Euro 2016 (three) and Euro 2020 (five). Nobody else has scored at more than four editions of the competition.
• And if Ronaldo, 39, does find the net, he will become the oldest scorer in the history of the Euros — usurping Luka Modric, who broke the record with his goal against Italy on Monday. Here are the 10 oldest scorers in the competition’s history:
• Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo is well clear on the list of all-time top scorers at the European Championship. Yet two players at this tournament — Griezmann and Spain’s Alvaro Morata — have a decent chance of overhauling Michel Platini in second.
| Player | Country | Goals | Tournaments |
|---|---|---|---|
Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 14 | 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024 |
Michel Platini | France | 9 | 1984 |
Alan Shearer | England | 7 | 1992, 1996, 2000 |
Alvaro Morata | Spain | 7 | 2016, 2020, 2024 |
Antoine Griezmann | France | 7 | 2016, 2020, 2024 |
• Harry Kane, who scored against Denmark in his country’s second group game, needs three more goals to overtake Alan Shearer as England’s top scorer at the Euros. The Bayern Munich forward has scored five times in this competition (four at Euro 2020 as well as that strike against Denmark), which leaves just Shearer (seven goals) and Wayne Rooney (six) as the Englishmen to have scored more than him at European Championships.
(Top photo: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)