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2020 was a surreal year ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought unique challenges to the top football leagues in the world.
Following a belated conclusion to the 2019-20 season, the top leagues had a shorter-than-usual off-season before the commencement of the ongoing campaign. That has meant that several top teams and players have looked off the pace.
However, despite the massive disruption to the football calendar brought about by the pandemic, a few players produced goal-rich years, helping their clubs reap rich dividends in the process.
Ten most prolific scorers in Europe's top 5 leagues in 2020
While many teams in the top five leagues have struggled to hit the ground running despite strong finishes in the previous season, the performances of a few players - especially up front - have belied that of their teams.
On that note, let us have a look at the ten most prolific scorers in the top-5 leagues during the last year.
#10 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - 19 goals
Lionel Messi had a rare underwhelming year in 2020. This had a crippling effect on the fortunes of Barcelona, who endured their first trophy-less campaign in more than a decade and may struggle to finish in the top four in the Spanish league this season.
Messi scored only 12 league goals last season since the turn of the year. Despite a dip in his goal-scoring returns, the player broke Xavi's record of most assists in a La Liga campaign. However, Barcelona struggled to get going all year.
Messi, who netted only seven times in 14 games in the ongoing 2020-21 league season, will hope for a strong finish to the campaign in 2021 to bury the demons of a forgettable year.
#9 Francesco Caputo (Sassuolo) - 19 goals
After flourishing in Serie B for most of his career, 33-year-old Francesco Caputo hit the ground running on his return to the top tier in 2018, scoring 16 times for Sassuolo.
Caputo then followed up with an even impressive 2019-20 campaign, tallying 21 strikes - with 13 of them coming in 2020.
The 33-year-old striker has already racked up six goals in the 2020-21 edition of Serie A and has also tallied four assists along the way.
#8 Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain) - 19 goals
Kylian Mbappe is one of the most exciting young prospects in world football at the moment. However, 2020 was a bit of an underwhelming year for the French sensation, considering his exploits in the previous two years with club and country.
Nevertheless, the 22-year-old played his part in Paris-Saint Germain (PSG) continuing their domestic stranglehold and reaching their first Champions League final.
In a truncated 2019-20 Ligue 1 season, Mbappe scored seven league goals before tallying 12 in the current campaign, despite PSG's stuttering domestic fortunes that cost Thomas Tuchel his job.
#7 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (AC Milan) - 20 goals
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has hit the ground running on his return to AC Milan at the start of the year.
The 39-year-old Swedish striker scored ten league goals since the turn of the year to help Milan qualify for the Europa League.
However, Ibrahimovic has been on fire in the current campaign - scoring ten times in just six league games - to propel the Rossoneri to the top of the Serie A table. Only two players have ever scored more in their first eight league games in a season.
However, injuries have meant that Ibrahimovic is yet to feature in seven Italian top-flight games since scoring a brace against Napoli in November.
#6 Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan) - 22 goals
Romelu Lukaku has had a dream start to life at Inter Milan - scoring 35 league goals - after a largely underwhelming stint at Manchester United.
The Belgian striker plundered 34 goals in his debut campaign with the Nerazzurri - a tally that consisted of 23 strikes in the league - 11 of them since the turn of the year - to help Inter finish a creditable second in the points table.
This season, Lukaku has taken it up a notch - he has already scored 12 times in 14 league games - to take Inter to within a point of league leaders AC Milan after 15 matches.
Lukaku has started the new year in a rich vein of form - scoring and assisting in Inter's convincing 6-2 home win over Crotone.
#5 Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) - 23 goals
Mohamed Salah is undoubtedly one of the key players in Jurgen Klopp's star-studded Liverpool team that won their first English league title in three decades last season.
Though the Egyptian winger scored only 19 league goals last campaign - down from his tallies of 32 and 22 respectively in his previous two seasons in the competition - Liverpool cantered to their first triumph in the Premier League era.
This season, Salah seems to be back to his goal-scoring best. He opened the league season with a hat-trick against Leeds United and has also made an impact off the bench as Liverpool once again look like the team to beat in the English top flight.
#4 Erling Braut Haaland (Borussia Dortmund) - 23 goals
Erling Braut Haaland is arguably the hottest young striker in the game at the moment.
Since bursting onto the Champions League stage with a debut hat-trick, the Norwegian sensation hasn't looked back. His goal-scoring exploits with Salzburg earned him a winter move to German giants Borussia Dortmund, where he has taken to the Bundesliga like a duck to water.
Haaland scored 13 league goals to help Dortmund finish second to champions Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. The 20-year-old has continued from where he left off last season, scoring ten league goals in only nine games, before getting injured.
During the present campaign, Haaland continued his fabulous exploits in the Champions League - only failing to score twice in 15 games in the competition.
#3 Ciro Immobile (Lazio) - 28 goals
Ciro Immobile arguably had his best-ever year in club football, as his 36 league goals in the campaign - the joint-most in an Italian top-flight season - helped Lazio to a creditable third-place finish.
The 30-year-old Lazio marksman has had a relatively quieter start to his 2020-21 league campaign, notching up 'only' ten goals.
However, Immobile has now tallied an impressive ten or more goals in each of his last five league campaigns in the Italian top flight and has scored in 13 of his last 14 games.
#2 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) - 32 goals
Robert Lewandowski has outshone the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to emerge as the hottest marksman in world football.
The prolific Pole, who scores goals for fun, amassed 34 in the Bundesliga last season and 55 in all competitions to help Bayern Munich to their second continental treble.
This season, Lewandowski has already plundered 19 league goals in only 13 games, as the Bundesliga's most prolific-scoring foreign player looks on course to beat Gerd Muller's record of most league goals (40) in a German top-flight campaign.
#1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) - 34 goals
Cristiano Ronaldo had a prolific scoring year in 2020 for both club and country.
After scoring 21 times in the league since the turn of the year to power Juventus to their ninth consecutive Scudetto, the 35-year-old Portugal captain is leading this season's scoring charts with 14 goals.
Earlier in the year, Ronaldo conjured his 100th goal for Portugal, becoming only the second player ever to do so in international football.
Ronaldo opened his 2021 campaign with a brace against Udinese as he looks determined to win the Capocannonieri after missing out on the same in his first two league seasons in Italy.
