GOALS: Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane worst value for money

Earnings per goal of the 2023/24 Golden Boot Top 10 finishers

ANALYSIS | PAUL KEMP – Sportingpedia | Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, and Harry Kane are among the most feared strikers in Europe in the post-Ronaldo and Messi era, but  they are also scoring the most expensive goals on the continent.

Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane inherits Erling Haaland as recipient of the award after hitting 36 Bundesliga goals, but Stuttgart’s scoring machine Serhou Guirassy emerges as the best value for money among the most prolific scorers on the continent.

Another curious revelation, from a  Sportingpedia examination of the earnings per goal of the players who finished in the top 10 of the Golden Boot rankings, is that each of Guirassy’s 28 goals has come at a cost 34 times less than that of a Kylian Mbappe goal in Ligue 1.

Mbappe proves to be the worst value for money, being paid €2.67 million per goal, while Guirassy has pocketed just €77,143 for each of his goals.

The price of each of Kylian Mbappe’s goals is a historical figure which might never be repeated.

The 2023/24 season was the last time the Frenchman was paid the astronomical salary of €72,000,000 (without bonuses) by PSG, resulting in an unbelievable cost of €2.67 million per league goal.

Kylian Mbappe’s salary is way higher than the rest of the players on the list, and there are solid reasons behind that. Mbappe’s stature in the modern game has risen far beyond of a normal footballer.

Over the past 12 months, he has been at the center of multiple high-profile meetings involving the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Emir of Qatar, among other influential figures outside of the football world. As Mbappe is set to leave PSG, it is widely rumoured that his next club will be Real Madrid, with a significantly lower salary, potentially up to five times less than what he made at PSG.

Close behind is last season’s Golden Boot winner, Erling Haaland, whose 27 Premier League goals cost Manchester City €839k each. In his debut season with Bayern Munich, Harry Kane failed to win silverware, but scored 36 goals in the Bundesliga, ending as the most prolific scorer in Europe. Each of his goals cost Bayern Munich €694k. These are the only three players whose goals cost their respective teams more than half a million euros each.

Middle Ground: Lautaro Martinez, Lois Openda, Cole Palmer, Alexander Sorloth

Lautaro Martinez scored 24 Serie A goals, each costing Inter €463k. The Nerazzurri captain is expected to sign a new bumper deal soon, which could increase the cost per goal, but he remains among the top 10 in the Golden Boot race for the third straight season. Lois Openda, who moved from Ligue 1 to the Bundesliga last summer, scored 24 goals in his maiden season, each costing RB Leipzig €236k. Cole Palmer left Manchester City to escape Erling Haaland’s shadow and had a stellar campaign with Chelsea, scoring 22 Premier League goals at a cost of €206k each. La Liga’s second-best scorer, Alexander Sorloth, ended the season with 23 goals for Villarreal, each costing the Yellow Submarine close to €157k.

Best Value for Money:Serhou Guirassy, Viktor Gyokeres, Artem Dovbyk

Serhou Guirassy finished second in the Bundesliga scoring rankings, and Viktor Gyokeres was the top scorer in Portugal, with 28 and 29 goals, respectively. Besides their undeniable skills, these two players offered the best value for money, with each of their goals costing Stuttgart and Sporting less than €100k. The top scorer in La Liga, Girona’s Artem Dovbyk, had earnings per goal slightly exceeding the €100k mark, at €104k. The Ukrainian, along with Guirassy and Gyokeres, receives an annual salary in the region of €2.16 – 2.5 million, which is less than what Mbappe made from a single goal during the 2023/24 Ligue 1 campaign.