The Bundesliga is getting a new king of goal scorers. Who are the favourites?

For the first time since the 2016/17 season, the German Bundesliga will see a new king of goal scorers, the Torjägerkanone, the award for the competition’s top scorer. After Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland left the competition, others were given their chance. Who’s grinding out the pins for this prestigious award?

With the transfers of Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona and Erling Haaland to Manchester City, an opportunity opened up for the other Bundesliga goalscorers that they hadn’t had for a long time. The Polish cannonballer has left the competition as a seven-time top scorer.

In doing so, he equalled Gerd Müller’s record. Since the 2013/14 season, when Lewandowski won the cannon for top scorer of the season while still in a BVB jersey, his dominance has only been broken by Alexander Meier (Eintracht Frankfurt, 2014/15) and Pierre-Emerick Aubumeyang (Borussia Dortmund, 2016/17).

Thanks also to the fact that Bayern Munich decided not to replace their long-time mainstay with another, legitimately less productive centre-forward, we already witnessed a debate before the kick-off of the season as to who could acquire Torjägerkanone for the 2022/23 season.

The hot favourite of many was Christopher Nkunku. The French RB Leipzig star notched up 20 hits last season, making Nkunku seem like a safe bet. He definitely remains one of the contenders after 22 rounds played.

With twelve goals currently in a shared second place, his chances are still high. At the moment, Nkunku would probably be topping the scorers’ table by a safe margin if not for a knee injury in November that scuppered, among other things, his hopes of participating in the 2022 World Cup.

With a total of seven games missed, health problems may cost the eight-time French international the top scorer trophy after his World Cup medal.

The candidate of the others, after all, was Bayern Munich player Jamal Musiala. That Bambi, as Musiala is nicknamed, has a taste for finishing, he has shown since his first goal in the Bavarian club’s jersey. In addition to congratulations, he was instructed to pass the ball in the same situation next time. But Musiala can do both, and so he added eleven goals to his eight assists this year. The last one into the Union Berlin net equalled Marcus Thuram’s tally so far.

The Borussia Mönchengladbach striker was not in the minds of many as a possible contender for top scorer. He played just under a thousand minutes across 21 games last season. He didn’t even ask for more space with just three goals. But this year in Parma, Italy, the French-born player is playing like he’s up for a new contract..

But the first two are currently made up of two surprising names. We won’t find Patrik Schick, who was also mentioned in this context before the season kick-off, at the top. After 24 goals last season. But Leverkusen have kicked appallingly this season.

As their fortunes began to turn, the Czech striker was sidelined by yet another in his long line of injuries. A hundred days of sick leave, coupled with an unworthy start to the season for a team with Leverkusen’s talent, have added up to just three shots so far.

For obvious reasons, Sébastien Haller is not among the Bundesliga’s top two scorers. A diagnosis of testicular cancer has pushed back Haller’s debut in a Borussia Dortmund jersey until January this year.

vincenzo Grifo has scored 12 goals so far this season. A Bundesliga stalwart with Italian roots, Grifo was not among the hot favourites to win the Torjägerkanone as Freiburg’s outside midfielder. He did, however, play penalty kicks for his team.

He has taken the penalty spot six times this season and his 100% success rate has shot him into select company. He can also show his skills to the fans from direct free kicks. Last time it was Hložek and Schick, when a perfectly struck ‘direct kick’ by Grif took two points from Leverkusen.

But the scorers’ table is led by the striker who kicked the second league last season. Niclas Füllkrug surprised many. The phrase repeated so many times during the World Cup that he is a second league goalscorer is not true. With the exception of last season, when Bremen were relegated to 2. Bundesliga, Füllkrug has been playing in Germany’s top competition since the 2017/18 season.

However, that was also the last time he reached double-digit goals (14). Since then, he has been floundering shooting-wise, although he hasn’t been given much space since his return to Bremen, where his footballing career began, due to the line-up glut and the travails the club has been going through. A cruciate ligament injury right after the transfer didn’t help matters.

Fit and with a clear role as Werder Bremen’s number one in attack, ‘Fülle’ could well become the first Torjägerkanone winner not named Robert Lewandowski in five years. It would almost be a fairytale story for his own career.

To join the list of such greats as not only Lewandowski and Aubumeyang, but also the likes of Mario Gómez, Edin Džeko, Luca Toni, Miroslav Klose, or Žilina native Marek Mintál. And we’re only talking about recent history.

Sources: Bundesliga, Transfermarkt