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Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Robert Lewandowski have dominated the goalscoring charts over the last decade. These superstars have normalized brilliance, making us believe that scoring 50 goals in a calendar year is the bare minimum for a forward.
Influenced by their unfathomable numbers, we often ignore players who deliver consistently for their teams week in, week out.
Today, we will take a break from the leading superstars and focus on players who have flown under the radar.
Here are five forwards who are not rated as highly as they are supposed to be:
#5 Ciro Immobile – Lazio
Following botched spells at Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla, Ciro Immobile joined Lazio in the summer of 2016. He barely took any time adjusting to new surroundings and started firing from the get-go.
In his debut season for Lazio, he scored 23 Serie A goals in 36 appearances, winning over his doubters. The following campaign, he bumped up his tally to 29 in Serie A and eight in the Europa League, winning the Golden Boot in both competitions. While Lazio finished fifth in the league, they reached the quarter-finals in the European competition.
So far, he has scored 175 goals for Lazio across competitions, winning the Golden Boot thrice in Serie A for the Rome-based outfit.
The striker, of course, was also an important member of Italy’s Euro-winning squad last summer.
He scored two goals and provided an assist for his country, playing in all but one match as Italy lifted the prestigious trophy.
#4 Iago Aspas – Celta Vigo
Unlike the other players on this list, Iago Aspas has not had the good fortune of winning major collective accolades. His beloved Celta Vigo have been a mid-table club throughout the 21st century, robbing Aspas of the opportunity to celebrate major titles.
The 34-year-old, however, is not one to complain as he always gives his 100 percent whenever called upon.
Graduating from Celta’s youth academy, the Spaniard joined the senior team in 2009. Impressed with his work at Vigo, Premier League giants Liverpool snapped him up for a €10.8million fee in 2013.
Unfortunately, he struggled to settle in at the Merseyside club and could only make 15 appearances, scoring once before being loaned out and later sold to Sevilla.
In Seville, too, he appeared to be homesick and took part in only 25 games for the La Liga outfit. Fortunately, three of them came in the Europa League in the 2014-15 season, which allowed him to bag the winners’ medal.
Following underwhelming spells, he returned home to Celta in 2015 and has been with them since.
Overall, the versatile forward has taken part in 407 appearances for Celta so far, pitching in with 179 goals and 59 assists across competitions.
#3 Edin Dzeko – Inter Milan
When it comes to unfairly rated centre-forwards, very few can hold a candle to Inter Milan star Edin Dzeko. Throughout his career, the Bosnian has served as a classic centre-forward.
He possesses impressive off-the-ball movement, is brilliant in the air, and can outmuscle almost any defender in the world. Despite having every required trait in his locker, he has often struggled to receive the plaudits he deserves.
Despite winning a couple of league titles at Manchester City, Dzeko found it difficult to express himself at the Etihad Stadium. Having played second-fiddle to the great Sergio Aguero for over four years, he finally decided to leave for Roma in 2015.
In Rome, he got the opportunity to lead the line and managed to thrive in the limelight. Between 2015 and 2021, he featured in 260 games for the Serie A giants, registering 119 goals and 55 assists.
Following a successful spell at Roma, he moved to Inter ahead of the 2021-22 campaign.
Since then, he has registered 16 goals and eight assists in 37 appearances across all competitions for his new employers.
#2 Thomas Muller – Bayern Munich
Easily the most decorated forward to feature on our list today, Thomas Muller remains criminally underrated despite winning it all with Bayern Munich and Germany.
The Bayern academy graduate has made 615 appearances for the senior team so far, scoring 224 goals and providing 240 assists.
He has so far won 10 Bundesliga titles, two Champions League trophies and six DFB Pokal cups amongst other honors in Bayern's colors.
He has been wildly successful for Germany too. He scored five goals in the 2010 World Cup to win the Golden Boot. Four years later, he helped his team to the title in Brazil.
He scored a hat-trick against Portugal and netted a goal against Brazil en route to the final. How he has still not won the Ballon d’Or is beyond us.
#1 Olivier Giroud – AC Milan
Former Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud is arguably the most underrated forward of the 21st century. From plying his trade at the biggest clubs to winning the World Cup, the Frenchman has done it all.
Yet, the football fraternity refuses to give him the recognition he thoroughly deserves.
Giroud's only league title of his career came for Montpellier in the 2011-12 season. His tally of 21 goals and 12 assists in the French top-flight earned him a €12million move to Arsenal at the end of the season.
He represented the Gunners for five-and-a-half seasons, scoring 105 goals and winning three FA Cups. In January 2018, he moved to Chelsea and helped them to the FA Cup trophy in his debut season itself.
His exploits earned him a call-up to the national team and he ended up lifting the World Cup in Russia. Giroud also played a key role in Chelsea’s 2020-21 Champions League triumph.
Although he didn’t feature in the final, he scored six goals in the competition, including a four-goal haul against Sevilla in a group-stage fixture.
Giroud is currently sporting AC Milan colors and recently fired them to the top of Serie A with an instinctive finish against rivals Napoli. He has scored 11 goals and provided three assists in 27 appearances across competitions since joining the Italian giants last summer.
