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After a four-month break, the UEFA Champions League is upon us, and for the next nine months, 32 of the best clubs on the continent will battle it out for honour and glory.
The Champions League is the premier club competition in Europe, and as such, playing in the tournament is a must for the top players of the world, while its high financial rewards mean that participation in the tournament is crucial to clubs achieving their fiscal targets.
On the collective level, winning the trophy itself is the aim for a select few clubs, but on an individual basis, there are a number of personal accolades to fight for, with the Golden Boot ranking as the most prestigious.
Winning the Champions League Golden Boot grants a pride of place for footballers, as it indicates that the winner outscored everyone else in the competition, and the award has been won by some of the most illustrious names in football history, including Raul Gonzalez, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Kaka, Andriy Shevchenko and the eternal duo of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
With the 29th iteration of Europe's premier club competition set to kick off, we shall be having a rundown of five players who are most likely to battle it out for the Champions League Golden Boot this season.
#5 Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
With 170 Premier League goals, Sergio Aguero is the highest scoring active player in the Premier League, and that total is enough to place him sixth on the list of all-time Premier League goalscorers; and he could very well break into the top three before the end of this season.
His career total of 401 goals for club and country is also hugely impressive, while with 237 goals in all competitions, he is by far the most potent goalscorer in Manchester City's history.
However, for all of his successes elsewhere, the Argentine international has not had much cause for joy in the Champions League and has just one semifinal appearance till date.
He has scored just 27 goals in the Champions League, although admittedly, these have come in only 37 games.
Pep Guardiola has not lifted the Champions League since doing so with Barcelona in 2012, and this is a major blot he would seek to wipe off with Manchester City this season.
Though he might state otherwise in public, the Catalan knows that his time at the Etihad would not be classified as a wholesome success if he fails to land the Big Ears, and if the Cityzens are to go all the way, Aguero would have a huge say in that.
#4 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
Robert Lewandowski is no stranger to scoring goals and picking up Golden Boot awards, having done so numerous times in the German Bundesliga over the course of his career.
The former Dortmund man has won the Bundesliga top scorer award on four occasions, while also doing so once in the Polish Estraklassa.
His goalscoring prowess has also manifested itself on the continent where the Polish captain is the sixth all-time record goalscorer in the competition with 53 goals coming in just 38 matches.
Lewandowski has been an ever-present as the focal point of Bayern's attack in their unprecedented dominance of the German league, but there has been a growing sense of frustration on the part of the fans and players over the Bavarians' inability to transfer their supremacy to the continent, with Lewandowski, in particular, being the most critical.
This summer has seen Bayern Munich strengthen significantly, signing full-backs Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernandez, while Philippe Coutinho and Ivan Perisic also arrived on loan to bolster their attack to give the record Bundesliga champions renewed optimism ahead of another European campaign and Lewandowski's goals would be crucial just as they have been all these years.
#3 Neymar (PSG)
Neymar completed a world-record transfer in the summer of 2017 to help PSG consolidate their domestic dominance on the continent, but two years on, that has failed to happen, as injuries and off-field issues have meant that the best of the Brazilian has not been seen in Paris.
The 27-year-old pushed for a messy transfer back to Barcelona, but the failure of anything to materialize from the deal means that Neymar will remain at the Parc des Princes for at least one more season.
However, beyond the off-field drama and speculation, there are few better than the former Santos man on it, and he once again underlined his brilliance with a goal and assist in his first match in over four months while representing his nation in a friendly clash with Colombia.
Neymar is a goalscorer of the highest proportion, and won the Champions League Golden Boot in 2015 when his 10 goals were enough to see him tie Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi atop the scorers' chart.
With his immediate future now resolved, Neymar would get back to doing what he does best: score goals and deliver on the premise which made PSG splash such a huge amount to get him.
#2 Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)
They say football is a religion, then, in that case, Cristiano Ronaldo is the High Priest, with the Champions League being his temple.
The Portuguese international has achieved truly remarkable feats throughout his career, but his performances in the Champions League has been nothing short of extraordinary.
He is the holder of numerous records in the Champions League, including: the only player in history to score in 11 consecutive Champions League matches, only player to score in all six group stage games, only player to have scored in three finals, as well as the only player to have scored at least 15 goals in a single campaign (which he has remarkably done on three occasions).
His total haul of 126 goals sees him firmly placed as the highest goalscorer in the history of the competition, while he has won the Champions League Golden Boot on seven occasions, including six consecutively between 2013 and 2018 to add to the one he won at Manchester United in 2008.
Ronaldo performed some heroics last season, including scoring a spectacular hat-trick to eliminate Atletico Madrid, but his efforts were ultimately futile as the Bianconeri got knocked out by Ajax at the quarterfinal stage.
However, as he himself admitted, he is fit and ready to go once again as Juventus seek to end their 22-year wait for European glory.
#1 Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi has totally reshaped the footballing landscape with his performances over the course of his career.
The Argentine maestro enjoyed a period of almost unfettered dominance between 2009 and 2012, winning the Champions League Golden Boot in each of those four seasons consecutively and broke Raul's previous record of 71 Champions League goals first, but he had to take a backseat as Ronaldo emerged as an unstoppable force on the continent in the latter stages of his Real Madrid career.
Messi finally gained sole ownership of the Champions League Golden Boot last season, as his 12 goals were significantly more than anyone else managed, but the prize came at a bittersweet cost, as his goals failed to inspire Barcelona to the Champions League.
With 112 goals, Messi is unsurprisingly the second-highest goalscorer in the history of this illustrious tournament, and he would be seeking to win his sixth Champions League Golden Boot while hoping his goals count for something on the collective level this time.
