Lukaku, Thuram, Barcola, Jota, they all have a big season to have to be in the stats and annals of the 2024-2025 season.
Romelu Lukaku (Naples)
Loaned by Chelsea for two seasons to Inter and Roma, the Belgian colossus was permanently transferred to Naples for €30 million this summer to try to make Osimhen forget and get along with Kvaratskhelia and his Belgian compatriot Cyril Ngonge, who arrived also from Verona.
The presence of Conte on the bench, with whom “Big Rom” was Italian champion with Inter in 2021, weighed enormously in the choice of the Red Devil with 119 caps and 85 goals (record) which does not take formality of not having a European Cup on the program for the first time in eight years. The objective is therefore found for him.
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Marcus Thuram (Inter Milan)
The eldest Thuram released his record last season with an Italian championship title where he played his full part (13 goals, 7 assists) within an ultra-dominant Inter where he had the merit of existing behind Lautaro Martinez (24 goals), top scorer in the championship, but without yet being able to claim to compete.
As with the Blues where his performances are still insufficient, he experienced more difficulties in the Champions League, as if his technical deficiencies in the game of movement did not yet allow him to look the best scorers on the planet in the eyes. While it took him three years to tame the Bundesliga, we expect better for his second season in Serie A. His debut (4 goals in 5 matches) whet the appetite.
Loïs Openda (Leipzig)
His 3rd place in the Bundesliga scorers ranking (24 years old) demonstrates that his 21 goals scored during his time at Lens were no coincidence. This efficiency confirmed up to the Champions League (4 goals in 8 matches), not yet in the selection (2 goals in 22 matches) allows him today to claim the succession to an aging Lukaku among the Red Devils. The handover is coming soon, perhaps this transition season before the next World Cup in the United States in 2026.
Victor Osimhen (Galatasaray)
From Naples, he already saw himself at PSG… he landed in Turkey, at Galatasaray, a lesser evil for the player who awakened Vesuvius more than thirty years after Maradona. Only on loan from the Neapolitan club, the Nigerian international even almost ended up in Saudi Arabia because President De Laurentiis waited until the last hours of the transfer window to try to get the most out of a player who is at the end of his contract in June 2025 .
While waiting to perhaps return for a trip to France next season, the former Lille player will still be able to talk about the country with two other former L1 residents, Icardi and Batshuayi. It all still seems like a waste…
Omar Marmoush (Eintracht Frankfurt)
Until now confidential, the Egyptian international’s 100% Bundesliga career has taken a more exciting turn since last season. If, at Wolfsburg, Sankt Pauli or Stuttgart his stats did not hit the headlines, they have started to be significant since he put his boots on in Frankfurt. Building on his 17 goals last season (12 in the Bundesliga and 4 in the Conference League), the Cairo native had already scored 6 in his first five league matches, alone at the top of the scorers’ ranking ahead of Kane and Kramaric.
Andrej Kramaric (Hoffenheim)
In Croatia, with whom he was a finalist and semi-finalist in the last two World Cups, finalist in the last Nations League, Kramaric is a monument. At Hoffenheim, where he has played since 2016, he is quite simply the top scorer in the club’s history (132 goals), the third most capped (284 matches).
Notwithstanding the 2021/2022 season, disrupted by an injury, he has always scored more than 10 goals per year in the Bundesliga allowing TSG to qualify for the C1 in 2017 and for the C3 this year thanks to a hat-trick against Bayern Munich during of the last day of the championship (4-2).
Bradley Barcola (PSG)
Deemed premature and overvalued (€50 million), his transfer to PSG is a success for the moment. If his beginnings were timid, his German summer with the French team allowed him to return with another status to assume the post-Mbappé era.
Beyond his fastest goal in the history of the Blues (13 seconds against Italy), his first in the selection, his performances in Ligue 1 have taken a step forward in efficiency (6 goals in the first 6 days) and in consistency. At only 22 years old, his room for improvement still seems immense to allow him to join the circle of top attackers on the planet.
Kai Havertz (Arsenal)
The versatility which was his weakness at Chelsea is once again a strength in the style of play advocated by Arteta at Arsenal. From a pure center forward that he is not and never will be with the Blues, he moved to false-9 with the Gunners to shine again as in his best years at Leverkusen. Having become vice-captain of the Mannschaft at the start of the season, he embodies more than ever the present and the future of a selection and a club in search of their past glory. In both cases, renewal will happen through him.
Diego Jota (Liverpool)
After the best season of his career, in 2021/2022 (21 goals, 8 assists, finalist of the C1, winner of the Cup and the English League Cup), the striker marked time, disturbed in 2023 /2024 by two serious injuries.
Two years from the end of a contract which has been extended… in 2022, it becomes urgent for him to regain his effectiveness. His performance against West Ham in the Cup (a double for a 5-1 victory) as well as the confidence given by Arne Slot to make him his number 1 center forward bodes well for the Portuguese.
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