Final stretch in three-horse race for Golden Boot

Plenty is still at stake on the final matchday of the top European leagues, with the battle for the 2025 Golden Boot being one of the main focuses of the season finale. The stage is set to determine the winner of the three-horse race between Viktor Gyokeres, Kylian Mbappe and Mohamed Salah.

Gyokeres leads the standings, but seems to be the worst off heading into the weekend. He concluded the Portuguese league campaign with a goal to hand Sporting Lisbon back-to-back titles. The Swedish striker will now follow his rivals on TV, praying that they don't score in their final games.

Having scored 39 league goals this term, Gyokeres is up to 58.5 points, but the Frenchman is just behind on 58 after scoring 29 goals in La Liga. The Egyptian star is slightly further back on 56 points, with 28 goals in the Premier League in his 2024/25 account.

The figures are clear. If neither Mbappe nor Salah scores, the Golden Boot will go to Gyokeres, capping an incredible season for the former Coventry City forward. The opposite would throw Gyokeres out of contention for the prize and down to the last podium place.

In that sense, the Real Madrid No.9 and Liverpool No. 11 would be left to scrap for the award. To win the Golden Boot, Salah, who faces Crystal Palace on Sunday, needs to score one more goal than Mbappe (and at least two goals). If not, the ex-PSG man will emerge victorious.

But the 32-year-old has had a poor end to the season, finding the target only once from his past eight matches. Within the same number of games, Mbappe has netted 12 goals and is also on a five-game scoring streak ahead of his final game against Real Sociedad on Saturday. 

Mbappe could win the first Golden Boot of his career after several years in which he narrowly missed out on the honour. The 26-year-old twice finished runner-up in the 2018/19 and 2021/22 campaigns, and third in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.