Europe's 'Big Five' Leaders: Goal Contributions

The seasons are over, the champions have been decided, the fates of the unfortunate few who are dropping down into the league below are set. It's a sad time as football fan. After the Champions League final concludes on Saturday, that is it for proper competition football until the new seasons start up in August.

But instead of twiddling our thumbs, let's take a look back at the past season and see who lead certain statistical categories, starting with goal contributions.

We also have a similar series as this exclusive to the Premier League that you can check out here.

 

1. Kylian Mbappe - 46

Kylian Mbappe has just been given some pretty hefty reigns at PSG, and for good reason. He is easily one of the best players in the world right now, but people will always argue against that fact because of the league he plays in. 

It shouldn't matter where he plays, as it's what he is able to do that is so spectacular. Mbappe led the French Ligue 1 this season in both goals, with 28, and assists, with 18. His hat-trick on the final day secured the golden boot for himself.

His best game of his this season - and arguably of any player on this list - came in gameweek 30, when he scored two goals and got three assists. One goal shy of an absolutely unbelievably perfect game, although that's not to say what he did isn't

 

2. Karim Benzema - 39

Ever since Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid, Karim Benzema has been able to shine. He has been showing everyone that he has always had the capabilities to be the guy to lead Real Madrid, doing so by example.

Benzema scored 27 goals this season, the most he has ever scored in a campaign in his career. He also bagged himself 12 assists, which is one shy of joining Barcelona's Ousmane Dembele with the most assists.

At 34 years old, the Frenchman may not have many seasons like this left in the tank, but he has made a very strong case for early leader in the Ballon d'Or rankings.

 

3. Robert Lewandowski - 38

The big scorer himself, Robert Lewandowski has had one of those immense seasons. Nobody comes close to his tally of 35 goals scored this season. That's 35 goals in 34 games played, which equates to 1.07 goals per 90 minutes. That's every manager's dream.

Lewandowski has the perfect supporting cast behind him, as his Bayern Munich teammate, Thomas Muller, finished top for assists with 18. That now makes it three years in a row that those two have finished top of those categories. But better yet, this is the fifth consecutive year that Lewy has won the Bundesliga golden boot.

It seems that the Body, as he is supposedly nicknamed, wants a change of scenery, though. He has one year left on his contract, although recently he requested a move away from Bayern. As such, there are multiple teams interested in his signature. 

 

4. Mo Salah - 36

Just like Mbappe, Mo Salah finished this season top of the Premier League for goals and assists - although he does share the golden boot with Tottenham's Son Heung-min.

23 goals and 13 assists from the man from Egypt is a brilliant amount for either category. His goal tally is his second most he's had in a season in his career, while 13 assists is the most he's ever achieved.

What makes his amount of goals so impressive is the fact that he had a bit of a drop off after the African Cup of Nations, where his Egypt side was beaten by his own Liverpool teammate, Sadio Mane and his stacked Senegal team.

Salah had 20 goals already by the middle of March, but slowed down to just the three for the rest of the season.

 

5. Christopher Nkunku - 33

Nkunku has had the breakthrough year that was very much expected of him. After spending four seasons with PSG as a young hopeful, he moved to RB Leipzig three seasons ago and has flourished into the player he is now.

And the player he is now is one that rivals some of the very best in Europe for goals, with 20 of them, as well as chip in with the second most assists in the Bundesliga with 13.

 

=6. Erling Haaland - 30

Considering Erling Haaland missed a good portion of the season through injury, he has been phenomenal for Dortmund. 22 goals and eight assists in 24 games is a very normal stat line to finish a season with for Haaland.

In his three season Dortmund career, he has scored 62 goals in 67 games. Add in assists and he has 78 goal contributions in 67 games.

Of course, he is now moving on to join Manchester City. It's quite scary to think of that City team now with Haaland up front as their main striker that they've needed. There is a strong possibility he ends up with the golden boot next season.

 

=6. Son Heung-min - 30

Tottenham had their usual big hitter of Harry Kane out of form for pretty much the whole first half of the season. But it was alright, because they had their other joint-main man, Son Heung-min, who was in fine form.

Throughout the year, Spurs have been able to rely on Son to come up with something gorgeous to help them to victory. And eventually, when Kane did find his form, the two clicked together as they always do and brought Spurs back to the Champions League.

Son finished the year level with Salah for the golden boot, and also tallied seven assists, the third most on the team.

 

=6. Wissam Ben Yedder - 30

Wissam Ben Yedder was keeping up with Mbappe for goals for a long time this season. He was just one goal behind him going into the final game of the season, where he was able to get one goal, but as we already know, Mbappe scored three for the sole lead.

Ben Yedder also added five assists this season. Not the most on this list, but it still takes his goal contribution tally to a very respectable 30.

 

=9. Ciro Immobile - 29

Ciro Immobile is like Lewandowski, in the sense that he gets goals. 27, to be precise, which earned him his third golden boot of his Serie A career.

His penalty taking ability is really to thank for his large number of goals. He scored seven penalties from nine attempts this season. With those two missed penalties, along with his already 27 goals scored and two assists, he would sit in sixth place on this list with 31 goal contributions.

 

=9. Domenico Berardi - 29

Another Italian rounds of this list. Domenico Berardi has found his form again in recent years. He experienced a dip in his career for a few seasons three years ago after breaking into Sassuolo's first team at 17 years old. But he has once again recaptured that fine form, and has now posted what is surely his best campaign to date.

15 goals and 14 assists for him this year, with the assist total leading the Italian Serie A. He'll be on many teams' radar this summer, although it will be difficult to pry him away from the side he has played for his whole career to date.