The Champions League is the biggest club football tournament in the world. As soon as the Champions League anthem begins, the players and fans know something special is about to happen and we have some great matches to look forward to this season.
The goal for every player involved in the Champions league is to lead their team to success and lift the trophy. However, there are also individual honours at stake and perhaps the most coveted is the top goal scorer.
Who will be the Champions League top goal scorer this season?
One glance at the list of previous Champions League top goal scorers shows a recent trend. In seven of the last thirteen Champions league campaigns, Cristiano Ronaldo has finished as the top scorer. Six times on his own and once shared with two other players. Not only that but Ronaldo has been crowned top scorer in each of the last three Champions League seasons.
Six of those successful seasons came in the famous white shirt of Real Madrid but this season Ronaldo will be playing for Juventus. The Old Lady have reached the Champions League final in two of the last four seasons and perhaps this is why Ronaldo chose Juventus as the final major club of his career.
If Juventus were to make the final of the Champions league again this season, it will be due in no small part to the number of goals scored by Ronaldo. The Portuguese remains one of the favourites with the bookmakers to finish the campaign as the top goal scorer but will his summer move see him move down the pecking order?
The bookmakers seem to think so and just ahead of Ronaldo in the odds to be 2018/19 Champions League top scorer is his great rival, Lionel Messi.
Messi has won the Champions league golden boot five times, four of which were on his own. The Argentine finished as top goal scorer for four seasons in a row between 2008 and 2012, which is a phenomenal achievement.
However, Barcelona have failed to get beyond the quarter-final stages of the competition in the past three seasons and have been handed a tough group. Barcelona have been drawn against Tottenham Hotspur, PSV Eindhoven and Inter Milan. It’s not going to be easy and the goals may not flow as Barcelona and Messi desire.
Two strikers who will be licking their lips ahead of the Champions League group stages are Sergio Aguero and Robert Lewandowski. Manchester City are many peoples favourites to win the Champions League this season and have been handed a good group. The group draw was also favourable for Bayern Munich and will present Lewandowski with the opportunity to score plenty of goals.
With Ajax, AEK Athens and Benfica visiting the Allianz Arena this season, Lewandowski will see this as the perfect opportunity to finish the season as the Champions League top scorer for this first time in his career.