2024 Golden Boot: Is Sehrou Guirassy More Than a Pacemaker?

Last season, too, Sehrou Guirassy showed flashes of his goalscoring talent in the Bundesliga. Stuttgart avoided relegation from the German top flight largely thanks to the 11 goals of the Guinean striker, who was then only on loan at the German club from Rennes.

This season, the former Amiens player has done more than confirm that promise. He is dominating and walking on air. With Harry Kane arriving at Bayern, many observers had backed the English striker to finish top of the scoring charts, but it is the Guinean who currently leads the race, and by a distance. Is he merely a pacemaker, pulling the more serious contenders along? Either way, his stunning start to the season will go down in the record books and allows him to dream of the European Golden Shoe, which rewards the top scorer over a season in the European leagues.

With his 13 goals in 8 league games, Sehrou Guirassy is currently second in the standings behind Pellegrino (22 goals, 33 points). But the Bodo/Glimt forward, who plays in Norway, should very soon be overtaken by the Syli centre-forward. The Norwegian league starts much earlier and has only six rounds left to play, and a goal in Norway counts for 1.5 points. In the 5 major European leagues (France, Germany, Spain, England and Italy), however, a goal is worth two points.

Since the Golden Shoe was introduced in 1968 (won by Eusébio), no African player has won it. Erling Halaand is the holder. The Norwegian Manchester City striker scored 36 goals last year. Going through a slightly tougher spell at the moment, he currently has five goals fewer than Sehrou Guirassy.

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