Georgia's relatively unknown striker Georges Mikautadze has unexpectedly risen to the top of the EURO 2024 Golden Boot list, while major candidates like Ronaldo and Kane have yet to score a goal.
Not Cristiano Ronaldo, not Harry Kane, who scored more than 30 goals in the National Championship last season. The person leading the list of top scorers at EURO 2024 is a relatively unknown striker: Georges Mikautadze of Georgia with 3 goals.
The striker, who is playing for Metz in Ligue 1, scored regularly in 3 group stage matches, helping the Georgian rookie reach the round of 16 in their first time participating in a EURO Finals.
In the first round, the 23-year-old striker scored an honorary goal against Turkey, then leveled the score 1-1 from a penalty in the match against the Czech Republic in the next round, before contributing to the surprise 2-0 victory over Portugal in the final round.
This was also the match where he faced superstar Ronaldo, who was extremely angry when the referee refused to award a penalty after the ball was pulled by a Georgian defender in the penalty area. Thus, Ronaldo has not scored any goals at this EURO.
Georges Mikautadze was born in France and grew up in the Metz academy. Last summer, he moved to Ajax, but failed to score a goal, so he returned to Metz in the winter transfer window on loan. In the second half of the season, Georges Mikautadze played explosively, scoring 13 goals, but could not help the team stay in Ligue 1.
In the EURO qualifiers, Mikautadze also scored 3 goals to help Georgia qualify for the Finals for the first time. After EURO 2024, his transfer value will certainly increase many times. Mikautadze is currently valued at 15 million euros by Transfermarkt.
Currently on the EURO 2024 top scorer rankings after the end of the group stage, in addition to Mikautadze who scored 3 goals, there are 5 other players who have scored 2 goals. The German team contributed 2 people: Jamal Musiala and Niklas Fullkrug. The rest include Ivan Schranz (Slovakia), Cody Gakpo (Netherlands), Răzvan Marin (Romania).
All still have a chance to improve their achievements because their teams have already qualified for the next round.
At EURO 2020, Ronaldo and Patrik Schick won the Golden Boot with 5 goals. But at EURO 2024, Schick had to leave with the Czech Republic.
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