While football is a team sport, a few players tend to overshadow their teammates in terms of their performances. As a result, individual honours are bestowed upon such overachievers to acknowledge their hard work. One example of such an individual award in 2024 is the Premier League Golden Boot.
Much akin to the points table, the race for the Premier League Golden Boot award in 2024 is a close one. For context, the Golden Boot is awarded to the leading goal scorer of the Premier League at the end of each season.
The departure of Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur has left the door open for new faces to rise to the occasion and have a shot at winning the coveted Golden Boot. Players like Cole Palmer, Dominic Solanke, Jarrod Bowen, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka, who till now were being looked at with the lens of being ‘promising’, have now emerged as serious contenders for the crown.
With such a neck-to-neck battle, it isn’t easy to pick a favourite. Regardless, we have taken stats and recent form into consideration to bring you our predictions for the Premier League Golden Boot winner in 2024. Keep reading to find out who we think has the best chance of winning the prestigious award.
Which players can be potential winners of the Premier League Golden Boot in 2024?
Erling Haaland
There is a saying that every player needs some time to settle in the Premier League. Even the best footballers in history have found it difficult to get going in the competition that is ever so demanding. After all, not everyone is Erling Haaland!
When he set foot in England in the summer of 2022, experts believed that the former Borussia Dortmund marksman would need ample time and opportunities before he finds ground under his feet in the Premier League. However, with a record-breaking tally of 36 goals in his debut season, the Norwegian proved, yet again, why he is in a league of his own.
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Haaland’s heroics helped Manchester City win the coveted treble of the Premier League, the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League. Pep Guardiola’s men became only the second side to achieve this feat after their arch-rivals Manchester United did the same in 1999.
Heading to the 2023-24 season, Manchester City were head and shoulders above everyone else, as was their talismanic striker. However, the road has not been smooth for them this time around. At present, the team is placed third on the points table, albeit with two more games in hand than the first-ranked Arsenal.
Injuries and a subsequent barren run in March have resulted in Haaland scoring lower than the predicted 30 goals this season. While he remains the Premier League’s leading goal scorer this season, others are breathing down his neck. Regardless, predicting Haaland as the potential winner of the Premier League Golden Boot in 2024 is still the safest bet anyone can place.
Cole Palmer
Falling out of favour with Pep Guardiola’s game plan, Manchester City’s academy graduate Cole Palmer had to shift to West London to play week in and week out. Today, he is one of the biggest threats to his childhood club whenever Chelsea and Manchester City go head-to-head against each other.
A part of Mauricio Pochettino’s major overhaul of Chelsea during the 2023-24 summer transfer window, Palmer had an instant impact at the Stamford Bridge-based club. He has already hit the 20-goal mark this season and is aiming to finish on a high.
Notably, Palmer shoulders the responsibility of taking penalty kicks for his side, something only the most experienced players generally do. And he has developed a penchant for scoring from the spot. With nine penalty kicks converted to goals (so far) in the Chelsea shirt, fans have started calling him Cole ‘Penalty’ Palmer.
While Chelsea has not enjoyed the best of forms under Pochettino this year, Palmer has been a revelation for them. The young Englishman rightfully makes his way in our predictions of the Premier League Golden Boot 2024 winner. Will he win the award? Only time will tell.
Ollie Watkins
Like the rest of the domestic leagues across Europe, the Premier League is a platform for players to audition for a place in their respective national squads for the UEFA Euro 2024. The competition to get into the English national side is one of the toughest in the world.
Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins is making a strong case for himself with a career-best goal tally in the Premier League this season. Only a goal away from the top spot, the Villa forward has four more matches to play in the English league before it draws to a close. In addition, he will also get a shot at winning some silverware when Villa takes on Olympiacos over two legs in the UEFA Europa Conference League semi-finals.
With players like Marcus Rashford, Anthony Gordon, Cole Palmer and Ivan Toney in contention for a place in England’s UEFA Euro 2024 squad, Watkins will have his task cut out for him. However, we are optimistic about his chances of impressing Gareth Southgate and getting on that flight to Germany this summer. Will he also be able to bag the Premier League Golden Boot? Well, you never know!
Mohamed Salah
A winner of the Premier League Golden Boot award on three occasions, Mohamed Salah has been a pillar for the Liverpool FC side under German coach Jürgen Klopp. In his seven seasons with the Merseyside club, the Egyptian has breached the 20-goal mark four times.
Despite not being at his imperious best, Salah is still a strong contender in our 2024 Golden Boot predictions. With Klopp set to leave Anfield at the end of this season, the players are adamant about winning as many trophies as they can to give the manager a fitting farewell. While they won the Carabao Cup earlier in 2024, their hopes of winning a European competition were dashed by Atalanta as they bowed out of the UEFA Europa League.
As Liverpool FC remain focused on securing the Premier League title, their success in the competition is heavily dependent on Salah’s form. Likewise, the ‘Egyptian king’ needs to win this award to prove to the football fraternity that he is, without question, one of the best in business. Knowing that Salah delivers the best when it matters the most, predicting him as the potential winner of the Premier League Golden Boot in 2024 is justified.
Alexander Isak
Summing up our Premier League Golden Boot 2024 winner predictions is Alexander Isak.
The young forward from Sweden has known only happy days ever since he arrived at St. James Park in 2022. For context, Newcastle United qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in several years after Isak’s arrival. Now they have a shot at heading to the UEFA Europa League next year.
While he scored 10 goals in 2022-23, Isak has bettered his tally this year by a significant margin. At the time of writing this article, the Swede has scored in six consecutive Premier League matches. His performance in recent weeks has garnered heaps of praise from fans and experts, including Premier League’s all-time record goal scorer Alan Shearer.
With Newcastle United yet to play four more games in 2024, Isak might find an opportunity to leapfrog to the top at the last minute and claim the Premier League Golden Boot 2024 award.
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(Main Image Credits: Erling Braut Haaland/Instagram and Cole Jermaine Palmer/Instagram; Featured Image Credits: Erling Braut Haaland/Instagram)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
– Who is expected to win the Premier League Golden Boot 2024?
Erling Haaland is expected to win the Premier League Golden Boot in 2024.
