Ranked! The 20 best strikers in the world

The best strikers in the world are the most valuable people in the game.

The most difficult thing in football is to score goals – so naturally, the best players in the world are going to be the ones who find the net more than your average guy.

The transfer market would certainly agree and of course, being a striker isn’t just about finishing anymore: you also have to hold up, link play, press, run the channels and bully defences…which makes judging the position particularly tough in 2025.

How FourFourTwo's expert panel decided the best strikers in the world

We asked FourFourTwo's esteemed expert panel for their picks of the 10 best players in the world in each position, taking into account form over the past 12-18 months, as well as technical ability and recent standing in the game.

Points were assigned to centre-forwards from 10 to one based on the experts' rankings, before minimal additional points were awarded for statistical metrics, such as successful take-ons, shot-creating actions, and, well… goals, and goals per 90 minutes.

There were 40 players nominated here and three points betwen first, second and third, while judgment calls were made on whether to include players as centre-forwards or place them on our lists of the best right-wingers and best left-wingers in the world.

If it's another list you're looking for, we also have compilations of players further back on the field. We've totted up the best goalkeepers in the world, along with defenders (right-backs, centre-backs and left-backs) and midfielders (defensive midfielders, central midfielders and attacking midfielders).

The full list

20. Jonathan Burkardt

Jonathan Burkardt isn’t exactly a wonderkid. He’s 25 and had to bide his time for Mainz before following Hugo Ekitike as Eintracht Frankfurt’s focal point – but with Die Adler boasting an impressive lineage of forwards they’ve helped develop, from Sebastien Haller to Omar Marmoush, Burkardt might be the next off the rack.

He’s prime age to begin his ascension to the top, and with eight goals in his first 10 Bundesliga games in Frankfurt, he’s hit the ground running.

19. Mikel Merino

“Mikel Merino?” we hear you ask, “The midfielder? In the list of the best strikers in the world?”

Well, yes. Because he’s not really a midfielder – not anymore – but since moving up front, he’s led one of the best sides in the world and scored bucketloads of goals. Sometimes football is that simple, and Merino’s combination of his aerial ability, hold-up play, drifting back into midfield and a finishing ability that no one realised he had has been a revelation in the Premier League. He’d start for most sides in Europe, come on…

18. Omar Marmoush

The second-in-command role behind Erling Haaland at Manchester City demands a difficult profile – but early signs suggest Omar Marmoush will be fine, taking half a season to clock 11 goal contributions in all competitions for Pep Guardiola’s side, with an injury to Haaland exposing Marmoush to the full breadth of his assignment.

Clinching the Premier League’s Goal of the Season for his smashed strike against Bournemouth, the Egyptian has already shown a spark for the spectacular, which has sometimes evaded City at times in the last 18 months.

17. Joaquin Panicelli

Chelsea may have their next no.9. Joaquin Panichelli has started his first 14 Strasbourg games with nine goals, after recording one every other game in the second division of Spain last season.

The Argentine has already received a national team call-up, too, and with his form lighting up Ligue 1 right now, the French division is an obvious stepping stone to bigger things – which will surely come his way in time.

16. Benjamin Sesko

There’s a reason he was so fiercely coveted, why RB Leipzig were so protective of him and why so many of his team-mates in Germany knew that he was going to the very top. Benjamin Sesko is still raw and very much an unpolished gem, but this kind of modern forward that possesses pace, height, and excellent footwork never goes out of fashion.

The Slovenian has already improved Manchester United up front: now, the hard work begins on him making a name for himself at Old Trafford. He’s got incredible potential – and he’s already a nightmare to defend.

15. Jean-Philippe Mateta

Thank goodness Crystal Palace activated the clause to keep Jean-Phillipe Mateta after his initial loan spell from Mainz, that only brought a goal every five games in 2021/22.

The Frenchman has seemingly been reborn since shaving his head and adopting a trademark celebration, and has become one of the most beloved players in the Premier League as a result, earning a call-up to his national side and becoming the focal point of the Eagles’ FA Cup-winning side. A brilliant signing, all in all.

14. Ferran Torres

Ferran Torres began life as a right-winger at Valencia and even hit a hat-trick in the Premier League in a brief stint (take that to a pub quiz) but he's found a nice role for himself at Barcelona.

It's not often that he starts ahead of Robert Lewandowski but the Spaniard offers the dynamism and energy off the ball that makes Hansi Flick's side high-octane side click.

13. Viktor Gyokeres

Not since the days of Mario Jardel has a player moved to Portugal and put up the kind of numbers that Viktor Gyokeres has in Lisbon – 97 goals in 102 appearances – and he’s done so answering critics along the way.

To those who claimed it’s not the strongest league, he’s netted a hat-trick against Manchester City. To those who claimed he was piggybacking off Ruben Amorim’s system, he continued to thrive after his mentor left for Manchester.

The Arsenal man may not be complete enough as a threat aerially or against low blocks, but he’s one of the best finishers in the world, and he’s unbeatable in the penalty area.

12. Serhou Guirassy

To many, Serhou Guirassy came out of nowhere, spawning in 2023/24 to score 28 times in 28 appearances for Stuttgart, before the big move to Borussia Dortmund. The purple patch should’ve ended there really.

But Guirassy has long been one of Europe’s more underappreciated hitmen, showing form in Ligue 1 before his move back to Germany – and now 29 and at Signal Iduna Park, he’s the lightning rod of a BVB side who have been difficult to predict in the past 18 months.

At least their no.9 is consistent though, slowly developing into one of the most composed men in front of goal anywhere in Europe.

11. Nick Woltemade

Is Nick Woltemade the first striker that you’d want to sign? Perhaps not. Is he the first you’d choose to watch, given the choice? Maybe, actually.

The German is a specific midpoint between the physical and the elegant: a 6ft 6in target man with a velvet touch, seemingly capable of delivering the perfect penalty and the perfect chip. You can see why Newcastle United stumped up so much for the 23-year-old. He’s absolutely box office.

10. Victor Osimhen

Somehow ending up exile in Turkey, Victor Osimhen still rose to the challenge with 26 strkes in 30 appearances and a Double for Galatasaray.

The fact that no club in Europe's top five leagues brought him back was strange but as he showed against Liverpool in particular this season, he is still one of the most complete forwards in the game, with pace in behind, superb hold-up play and finishing as good as anyone on Earth.

The most underrated player in Europe right now?

9. Hugo Ekitike

In a viral post that went round after yet another Hugo Ekitike goal, it was posed that AI wasn’t taking the Frenchman’s job, at least.

While Alexander Isak has struggled so far for the Reds, the man they signed to be his backup has thrived. He has the pace, precision and power of the Swede, along with excellent hold-up play, to boot.

Ekitike has been a livewire in Liverpool’s attack, knitting play nicely and taking to the Premier League with ease after a big-money move: at 23: he’s only going to improve, too.

8. Lautaro Martinez

Lautaro Martinez is probably the best striker in the world to have never quite been considered the best striker in the world.

Often, a striker will come along to Serie A and battle or better the Argentinian’s scoring record for a season, but none boast his relentless consistency in front of goal. In all competitions last term, he notched 22 goals, shadowed by his 27 goals the season previous, which is just edged out by his 28 bows the campaign before that.

Oh, and that’s without mentioning his 36 goals in 75 Argentina caps. He truly is the picture of consistency. He's thrived alongside a rotating cast of strike partners and has delivered in the biggest moments in the San Siro: yet somehow, he's never on anyone's lips as the man.

The 28-year-old – no, really, only 28 – has a World Cup, two Copa Americas and two Scudetti, amongst other silverware, to comfort himself with, but he may just be the most underrated forward of a generation.

7. Robert Lewandowski

Robert Lewandowski has been reliably rippling nets for so long that some of his contemporaries watched him on television as children. He first his double figures in the league in Germany in 2012: 14 years later, he’s scored eight in his first 12 in Spain.

The Pole is a complete striker but to talk about his specific traits is futile: he simply views his job as putting the ball in the goal, and there’s perhaps been no one better at doing it over the past 10 years. Even at 37, there aren’t many better at it still.

He’ll go down as a great.

6. Alexander Isak

Liverpool has been tough for Alexander Isak, who’s had to contend with injuries and a Reds team that has fluctuated wildly since lifting its 20th title last season: but class is permanent, and the Swede has been one of the biggest things to hit the Premier League in years.

He has the pace, the finishing and the swagger that frighten any defender, and while on Tyneside, Isak was almost undefendable, with an ability to hurt you on the break or in a low block. And the best thing is that such a rise has been a little unexpected.

Isak didn’t really take to Dortmund and though his spell at Real Sociedad was solid, no one really expected him to explode into the elite in quite the way he did. It’s just another reason he can’t be written off at Anfield.

5. Julian Alvarez

Julian Alvarez made his name as Erling Haaland’s sidekick, but he was always destined for greater things.

He registered immense output for Manchester City in his final season, but onlookers were left agog at the Argentinian’s £82 million purchase by Atletico Madrid. Their jaws remained on the floor when the 25-year-old got to work in the Spanish capital, notching 29 goals and providing seven assists in his debut season under fellow countryman Diego Simeone.

With a World Cup, two Copa Americas, a Champions League and two Premier Leagues on his CV, to name just a few, Alvarez has a very realistic opportunity to end his career as one of the most decorated football players of all time.

4. Ousmane Dembele

Looking back, moving Ousmane Dembele to centre-forward was an obvious move. The man is equal parts creative and deadly, can strike a ball with grace or ferocity with either foot and his movement is enough to bamboozle defenders.

Since his mate Mbappe left Paris Saint-Germain, however, the Ballon d’Or winner has stepped up to a whole new level in terms of his mentality: he’s been a figure that a young Parisian team all look up to, as he sets the precedent for press, yet is capable of a kind of magic with the ball that few others on Earth can boast.

It’s been incredibly satisfying to see him live up to his stratospheric potential over the past year: here’s hoping it continues.

3. Kylian Mbappe

The first few months at Real Madrid were sticky for Kylian Mbappe – but having settled into his groove, he hit 69 goals in his first 80 games. Not bad for a team that weren’t exactly geared aroundhim.

And the strangest thing is that Mbappe doesn’t feel like a lone centre-forward. He doesn’t hold the ball up like a striker. He doesn’t drift out of the ball and make the runs that you see so often from a Haaland or a Kane: he has a unique way of playing the role and has put up similar output to that he managed on the wing in Paris.

He moves like a winger, he’s deadly in transition and there’s practically no one who rises to a big occasion like him: he even had the nerve to try and take Lionel Messi’s spotlight in the 2022 World Cup final.

2. Erling Haaland

This level of output simply isn’t human, as Erling Haaland referenced with his own robot celebration recently. 100 goals in 111 games puts him beyond anyone in Premier League history in terms of scoring, with Alan Shearer sweating over his record, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s 103 goals in 236 appearances, for example, eclipsed in half of that time.

Haaland is a machine that only comes around once in a while. His goalscoring feats have seemed unsustainable for years and yet somehow, he’s dragged Manchester City into a title race that they weren’t otherwise in and taken his nation to a World Cup for the first time since 1998. He is the very model of how to build a striker, with pace, aerial ability and pinpoint accuracy.

But perhaps the biggest compliment you can pay Haaland is that he simply feels inevitable. What makes him so hard to defend against is that you know he only needs one chance. He’s on course for all-timer status already.

1. Harry Kane

Is Harry Kane England’s greatest-ever striker? For some, the record will be enough; others will claim it’s sacrilege to even suggest. But there’s perhaps never been a striker come out of this country like him.

To be that complete is special. Not only is Kane is the upper echelons of the greatest finishers of all time, he has the kind of passing range and ability to influence a game that very few English centre-forwards have ever had before: the pure level of his output is as good as anyone, too, with just silverware lacking in his argument.

But hey, even that’s following. A first trophy, he hopes, has opened the floodgates, and as one of the most watchable players on Earth this season, Bayern Munich will surely retain the Bundesliga once more this term, affirming Kane as one Die Roten’s most impressive strikers this century. A World Cup next summer would surely put him among the greats for certain…