Top leagues + European Cup
©IMAGO
In the 2024 calendar year, Sporting CP fans were able to cheer most often across Europe. The Portuguese champions scored 153 times, with 52 goals coming from attacker Viktor Gyökeres, who is only the fifth footballer to score more than 60 goals in one year for club and national team. The best-placed German club is FC Bayern, which is in 11th place, ahead of double winner Bayer Leverkusen in 15th place.
The 153 goals in 56 competitive games secured Sporting the championship and currently lead the league table. However, it remained the only title, because in the Europa League they failed in the round of 16 against eventual winners Atalanta and in the Taça de Portugal the Lions lost in the final to FC Porto. Liverpool FC is in second place. England’s league leader, led by the currently outstanding Mohamed Salah, was successful 144 times in 57 games. The bottom line is that in 2024 it was only enough for the consolation prize, the English League Cup.
The Dutch and Scottish champions are in third and fourth place. PSV Eindhoven scored 140 times in 47 appearances, Celtic’s offensive led by the German Nicolas Kühn scored 139 goals in 50 games. Both clubs are ahead of Sporting in terms of goals per game. Peter Bosz’s team scored an average of 2.98 goals per 90 minutes, while Celtic scored 2.78 goals – the best rates in Europe’s strongest first leagues. Sporting scored 2.73 goals per game and took third place in this discipline.
Despite 126 goals and a yield of 2.57 goals per game, which was the fifth-best rate internationally, FC Bayern was unable to celebrate a title in 2024 for the first time since 2012. Both the German championship and the DFB Cup went to Bayer Leverkusen. Xabi Alonso’s team celebrated 119 times in 53 appearances. Unlike in Italy, Spain and England, the Bundesliga only has 34 match days instead of 38, which puts German teams at a disadvantage in this category. Sporting, Eindhoven and Celtic duel with different calibers in the domestic league than teams in the top 5 leagues and are therefore high in the rankings.
Meanwhile, Karlsruher SC, a second division team, and three third division teams, Ingolstadt, Sandhausen and 1860 Munich, made it into the ten most accurate teams in Germany in 2024.
