Despite England’s underwhelming group stage showing, Harry Kane remains the bookmakers’ second favourite to claim the Golden Boot award. The England captain has scored one of his countries two goals at Euro 2024 to date, delivering the opening strike during the Three Lions’ 1-1 draw with Denmark.

Cast your mind back to this stage at Euro 2020 and England had reached the knockout round in similarly unconvincing fashion, with Kane still to open his account. The England sharpshooter then went on to rack up four goals across his subsequent three appearances, and there could be scope for a repeat this time around given how the draw has panned out for Gareth Southgate’s side.

There is surely better to come from both England and their record goalscorer, and a round of 16 clash with Slovakia represents a good opportunity for Kane to add to his Euro 2024 tally.

Thereafter, England, in spite of their shortcomings, would be expected to see off either Switzerland or Italy before taking on inferior opposition at the semi-final stage. A further three or four goals from Kane isn’t beyond the realms of possibility, and achieving that total may be enough to take home the Golden Boot.

In his newfound role as captain of the national team, Alvaro Morata has gone from a maligned figure to the first name on the team sheet for Spain.

After being handed the armband ahead of Spain’s Euro 2024 qualifying campaign, Morata paid dividends with a hat-trick against Georgia before scoring a crucial goal against Scotland to secure qualification.

While Morata has endured scoring droughts and confidence issues during his career at club level, he has proven very reliable for his country when it comes to scoring goals. Morata’s international record of 36 goals in 76 appearances speaks for itself.

He warmed-up for the tournament by netting in Spain’s 5-1 win over Northern Ireland and has since gone on to score against Croatia, so Morata is very much a man in form. That matchday one strike against the Croatians also means Morata now sits joint-third in the all-time European Championship top scorers standings.

Spain’s path to the quarter-finals looks relatively straightforward so there should be ample opportunity for Morata to to maintain his goal-scoring momentum, and there is no reason to suggest the goals would dry up thereafter. Thus, the Spanish skipper merits strong consideration as an each-way selection.

Austria’s excellent showing in Group D confirmed their status as dark horses of Euro 2024. On top of this, Ralf Rangnick’s side have presented themselves with a plausible path to the latter stages of the competition, making midfielder Marcel Sabitzer a lively outsider to bag the Golden Boot award.

After firing a blank against France in their Group D opener, Austria have since racked up six strikes across their subsequent two fixtures, with the aforementioned Sabitzer grabbing one of those.

Under the guidance of wily tactician Ralf Rangnick, Sabitzer continues to thrive in a more advanced midfield role for Das Team – the Austrian maestro has notched in four of his last eight outings on the international stage. What’s more, six of Sabitzer’s overall tally of 17 international goals have arrived across his last 13 appearances for his country, highlighting just how potent a weapon he is for Austria.

Given that Austria now have a realistic chance of playing at least three more matches at Euro 2024, Sabitzer could have the opportunity to outperform his lofty top goalscorer odds.

The Frenchman is deserving of top billing in this market.

He befits all of the key criteria required for a Golden Boot winner, and he has won a Golden Boot already, so has course form.

Mbappe has had another strong season with PSG, indeed, this is actually Mbappe’s second-best season in terms of goals scored per 90 minutes in Ligue 1. He is scoring at 1.13 goals per 90 in the French domestic league and he has equalled his highest Champions League goal tally. He could yet lead PSG to their maiden Champions League crown before departing for Real Madrid in the summer.

His data for France makes for compelling evidence as well. He has scored 1.23 goals per 90 in the 2024 qualifiers, and he bagged at 1.2 goals per 90 in the 2022 World Cup. These are numbers unmatched by anyone else in the field, and while his numbers dropped in the 22/23 season to 0.53 goals per 90, that is still a healthy data point.

Ultimately, he is playing for one of the big favourites for the overall crown, and if France play seven matches it is very difficult to imagine Mbappe not getting at least five goals in that run.

It is surprising to be previewing Cristiano Ronaldo as a realistic Golden Boot contender in 2024, but he is a player who should be taken seriously for this crown.

Ronaldo is a player who needs no invitation to look for extra motivation, but to be able to win a Golden Boot at the age of 38, while playing in a non-elite (for the moment) league would be an achievement that major international tournaments have never seen before.

When Portugal exited the 2022 World Cup it was assumed by many that it would be the farewell of Ronaldo from the major international scene, but Roberto Martinez has kept Ronaldo in the fold and the decision has definitely paid off.

Ronaldo scored 1.25 goals per 90 in qualifying, which was straightforward for the Portuguese. However, most importantly for Ronaldo, he played 721 minutes in the qualifying campaign, the third-highest number in the squad. He has held off the threat of Goncalo Ramos for the immediate future and will start as Portugal’s #9.

Portugal are a squad full of goals at the moment. Surrounding Ronaldo with players at the peak of their powers such as Bruno Fernandes, Rafael Leao, Bernardo Silva, and Joao Felix, means that they can be a real threat for the title, and a real threat for banging in some goals in the group as well, which was the route that Ronaldo took for his 2020 Golden Boot. He could do it again.

The 20-year-old has had an incredible season at Real Madrid, practically leading the biggest club in the world to a La Liga title, and potentially a double with the Champions League.

Bellingham scored 19 domestic goals, and was Real’s top scorer, at a rate of 0.78 per 90 minutes.

Ultimately though, he isn’t as prolific as the other players in the betting, and certainly not for England. He has only three goals in England colours at this stage, at 0.14 per 90. His position has generally been much deeper than for Los Blancos, but even having been pushed forward by Gareth Southgate, he still has to compete with Kane, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka for goals.

Lukaku led the goalscoring charts in Euro qualifying, but perhaps there is some waning in the belief that the talented Belgian side of the last decade or so will ever win an international tournament. There is, potentially, also a belief that Lukaku has had a poor season at Roma, which may impact his price.

The former Man Utd forward has performed above his xG rate in every season of his career so far.

His goalscoring rate in Euro qualifying was a ridiculous 2.13 per 90. He has been to five major tournaments now with Belgium and scored 11 times, at a rate of 0.64 per 90. He will have to better this rate if he is to win the Golden Boot, and Belgium will need a deep run, but he is priced accordingly.