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From a stationery striker charged with just putting the ball into the back of the net, forwards have evolved into all-round footballers who are sometimes tasked with scoring as well as playing a major role in the build-up play.
Although their primary job is still scoring goals, nouveau roles like 'inverted wingers' and 'false nines' have entered the football lexicon in the last decade and forwards remain as relevant as ever to the success of football teams.
With another season of European football gradually coming to an end, we shall be taking a look at the 10 forwards who distinguished themselves and rose above the disruptions of the Covid pandemic to put in accomplished performances this season.
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#10 Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan)
Romelu Lukaku just edges out Kylian Mbappe (whose season was abruptly ended by the cancellation of the French Ligue 1).
The Belgian international has gotten a new lease of life under Antonio Conte following his nightmarish spell with Manchester United and was the driving force behind Inter Milan's ultimately futile Serie A quest.
This season, Lukaku has weighed in with 27 goals and five assists from 43 games in all competitions, while his campaign could yet end with silverware if he can keep his form going when the Europa League resumes.
#9 Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Karim Benzema has rediscovered his scoring boots since Cristiano Ronaldo departed Real Madrid, with the Frenchman making a mockery of those who suggested he could not be trusted to lead the Madrid line.
The 32-year-old has scored a combined 56 goals over the last two seasons, with 26 of those coming in 47 matches this season, while he also weighed in with 11 assists to boot.
With the exception of Sergio Ramos, it can be argued that Benzema was the most important player to Real Madrid's LaLiga quest and he has undoubtedly repaid the faith reposed in him by Zinedine Zidane.
#8 Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)
For a player who spent the formative years of his career playing non-league football and did not feature on the league pyramid until he was 25, Jamie Vardy has done awfully well for himself.
The 33-year-old captured imaginations with his exploits in Leicester's fairytale title win in 2016 and since then, the former England international has installed himself as one of the elite forwards in the Premier League.
Vardy currently leads the way in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot with 23 goals and five assists, while he also went on a memorable run of scoring 11 goals in eight matches consecutively as Leicester climbed up the table.
#7 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)
Although he does not get as much accolades and reviews as his abilities deserve, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been one of the best strikers in the world over the last five years.
After some spectacular seasons with Borussia Dortmund (where he remarkably pipped Lewandowski to the Bundesliga Golden Boot), Auba signed with Arsenal and has continued from where he left off.
The 31-year-old jointly won the Premier League Golden Boot in his first full season with the Gunners and became the fastest player to score 50 Premier League goals in Arsenal's history, beating legends like Thierry Henry and Ian Wright.
He still has an outside chance for the Golden Boot, with 20 goals from 34 matches, while his brace against Manchester City in the FA Cup semifinal ended the Mancunians' remarkable run of not losing in domestic competitions for over two years.
#6 Erling Braut Haaland (RB Sazlburg/Borussia Dortmund)
From lighting the stage at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Poland last summer to breaking records almost on a weekly basis with Borussia Dortmund, Erling Haaland has seen an amazing career trajectory in the last one year.
Having sparkled in the Austrian Bundesliga with RB Salzburg where he scored 29 goals - including eight in the Champions League - in just six months, a scuffle for his signature was engaged in by several top clubs, with Borussia Dortmund ultimately winning the race for his services.
Since his arrival in Germany, Haaland has blossomed into one of the most lethal forwards in Europe and marked his debut with a hat-trick in only 34 minutes of action, scoring a further four goals in his next two games.
In total, he ended the campaign with 44 goals and 10 assists from just 40 matches across his spells with Dortmund and Salzburg.
#5 Timo Werner (RB Leipzig)
After four seasons of optimum performance in the Bundesliga, Timo Werner completed a mega-move to the Premier League where he will line up with Chelsea from next season.
The German international has been the focal point of the Leipzig attack that has captured imagination and he took his goalscoring exploits to new heights in the just concluded Bundesliga season.
With 26 goals and eight assists from 34 league games, he trailed only Robert Lewandowski in the scorer's chart, while he also weighed in with a combined six goals and five assists in the Champions League and DFB Pokal. Werner will be looking to kick on and perform in the same way for Chelsea next season
#4 Ciro Immobile (Lazio)
Ciro Immobile has been one of the stalwarts of the Italian league over the last few seasons and while he might not exactly be a household name on the continent, his record in the Serie A has been stellar and he has two Capocannoniere crowns to show for his efforts.
This season, he has kept up to his standards and his goals have helped propel Lazio to a Champions League spot on the table, while Immobile himself is firmly in the race to be crowned Serie A top scorer for the third time.
Although the goals have dried up of late, the 30-year-old jointly leads the way with 30 goals (alongside Cristiano Ronaldo) in the race for the Serie A Golden Boot, while Robert Lewandoski's benchmark of 34 for the European Golden Shoe is not entirely out of reach.
#3 Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Even though Barcelona have not reached the heights expected this season, Lionel Messi has been one of a handful of Blaugrana players who emerged from this season with any credit.
Once again, the Argentine skipper led the way in assists provided, with his total of 21 seeing him surpass former teammate Xavi's record of 20, while his 25 league goals were also enough to see him win a 7th Pichichi award - nobody in history has more.
#2 Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)
The dictionary has run out of superlatives to define Cristiano Ronaldo's greatness but it says a lot about both his mentality and dedication that the Portuguese icon is still going strong in one of the best leagues in the world at the age of 35.
After a slow start to the campaign, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner hit form in December and he has not looked back since then, going on to equal the Serie A record of scoring in 11 consecutive games.
He later became the first Juventus player to score 25 league goals in a single season in 60 years and has gone further to cement his name in the record books as the fastest player to score 50 goals in Serie A history and the first player in history to score 50 or more goals in LaLiga, Serie A, and the Premier League.
Ronaldo is looking to become the first player to win a Golden Boot in the three aforementioned leagues and given his recent form, it would not be far-fetched to see him achieve this feat.
#1 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
Alongside Luis Suarez, Robert Lewandowski is universally regarded as the standout striker of his generation and this season has seen the Polish international take his goalscoring to new heights.
His total of 51 goals from just 43 matches in all competitions is far more than anyone else has managed, while he also leads the way in terms of goalscoring across European leagues with 34 goals in the just concluded Bundesliga season.
The 31-year-old was also on fire in the Champions League and scored in every single game he played from the group stage through the round-of-16 and his 11 goals have helped install Bayern Munich as the favourites for the title when it resumes in August.
