Most goals scored in 2024: Viktor Gyokeres set to end calendar year as football’s leading goal-scorer

Viktor Gyokeres has developed into one of the most feared and admired strikers in football in the past year — and with good reason.

The Sporting CP star has been the most effective marksman across the major leagues and international matches throughout 2024, cementing his status as one of the best in the business, not to mention a potential transfer target for some of the world’s biggest clubs in 2025.

Gyokeres has outperformed the likes of Robert Lewandowski and Kylian Mbappe in terms of goals in this calendar year, while Cristiano Ronaldo — who topped the charts for 2023 — did not come close to matching the leading tallies this time.

MORE: All the latest EPL club news | Team-by-team Premier League schedule for 2024/25 | Latest Premier League top scorer rankings

Who has scored the most goals in 2024?

Across the top-rated leagues in the world, the leading goal-scorer in 2024 in domestic and international football combined is Sporting CP star Viktor Gyokeres. The Sweden international has scored 52 goals in 55 games for club and country.

Gyokeres is 12 clear of his nearest rival, which is Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski. Bayern Munich and England’s Harry Kane is a goal further back, with Erling Haaland in fourth and Kylian Mbappe fifth.

There is a chance that Haaland, Cole Palmer and Mohamed Salah could yet catch Gyokeres at the top of the standings, but since that would require them to score more than a dozen goals in their single remaining games of the year, we can just about safely assume they will fall short.

Most goals scored for club and country in 2024

*Data from Transfermarkt. Top 10 global leagues, cup competitions and international games included

Top global goal scorers for past 10 years

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are well known for their goal-scoring prowess, but the global leader in goals for a calendar year has actually been spread across a number of players, nations, clubs, and continents over the previous decade.

Ronaldo and Messi appear on the list a combined four times, but others show up as well. Robert Lewandowski‘s two-year run through the COVID seasons saw him famously robbed of a Ballon d’Or, while Harry Kane paced the field in 2017, fittingly replacing Lewandowski at Bayern in 2023.

Top goal scorers in a calendar year all-time record

The official FIFA record for most goals in a single calendar year is held by Lionel Messi whose legendary 2012 romp saw him bag 91 goals for club and country, helping lead Barcelona to the 2012/13 La Liga title and reaching the Champions League semifinals in both 2011/12 and 2012/13.

In that run, Messi also set the record for most consecutive games with a goal in a single competition, netting in a bonkers 21 straight La Liga matches.

Messi’s mark broke a 40-year record held by German superstar Gerd Muller who has seen his 85-goal tally in 1972 hold up across an astonishing four decades.

However, there’s one submission not officially recognised that some believe still holds the record. Godfrey Chitalu of Zambia, who played most of his club career for Kabwe Warriors, is claimed to have scored 116 goals in 1972, the same season Muller set his official record that would last for 40 years. Despite this, FIFA did not monitor the Zambian domestic competition so it was never officially confirmed.