Who will win the Bundesliga Golden Boot in 2025/2026?

This weekend the German Bundesliga kicks off the 2025/2026 season. Even if the league at present is not the hottest among Europe's top four leagues - it is currently ranked only fourth by UEFA - it still remains one of the competitions that attracts the most attention. The season gets underway with a blockbuster clash as Bayern Munich host RB Leipzig at the Allianz Arena on Friday evening.

Last season Bayern Munich won the league quite comfortably, finishing 13 points clear of Bayer Leverkusen. It would be naïve not to rank Bayern as the big favourites once again this year, especially since 2023/2024's big surprise and dominant force, Bayer Leverkusen, have lost their coach Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid. Their squad has also gradually been weakened, with key players such as Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong leaving for Liverpool, and Jonathan Tah joining Bayern Munich, just to name a few.

The main focus here, however, is not which team is most likely to win the league, but rather to take a closer look at the potential Golden Boot winners this Bundesliga season.

Last season's top scorers

As expected, Bayern Munich's Harry Kane finished as top scorer in the 2024/2025 season, with his 26 goals comfortably ahead of the nearest challengers: Bayer Leverkusen's Patrik Schick and Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy, who shared second place with 21 goals each.

It is also worth noting that Eintracht Frankfurt's Egyptian striker Omar Marmoush was only one goal behind Kane when he was signed by Manchester City during the winter transfer window, and it's not unthinkable that he could have been in the race for the Golden Boot had he stayed for the rest of the season.

Favourites to win the Bundesliga Golden Boot 2025/2026

So which players realistically have a chance to claim the Bundesliga's Golden Boot this coming season? Here we look at the three strongest candidates and add a couple of outsiders and dark horses. It is naturally our tips are listed below, you can always read more football tipster reviews if interested.

1. Harry Kane, Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich's Englishman Harry Kane has won the Golden Boot in both seasons he has spent at the club - scoring 36 goals in his first year, and as already mentioned, followed by 26 last season. Given how dominant Bayern look again this year, it's impossible not to tip him as the favourite once more. In practice, only a serious injury seems likely to stop him, though with that said, there are certainly a few serious challengers.

2. Patrik Schick, Bayer Leverkusen

Our first challenger is Bayer Leverkusen's Czech striker Patrik Schick. Admittedly, Leverkusen do look weakened this season, but they still have a very solid squad and perhaps the arrival of a new coach, Erik ten Hag, could bring fresh energy. Ten Hag may have failed at Manchester United (as all coaches seem to these days), but he did a fantastic job at Ajax before that.

If Bayer Leverkusen manage to have a successful season, Schick will likely be the man behind most of their goals. He struggled with injuries for a couple of seasons but made a real comeback last year. Even though he was gradually reintroduced to the team - not scoring his first league goal until November 9 - he still finished with 21 goals. If he can stay fit from start to finish this time, we might see him score many more than that.

3. Serhou Guirassy, Borussia Dortmund

Serhou Guirassy had a sensational 2023/2024 season when he played for Stuttgart, keeping his scoring pace with Kane for quite a while that year before finishing with 28 goals. Last season he moved to Borussia Dortmund, and naturally the hope was that he could take another step forward there.

He had a decent season with 21 league goals, but just like the team as a whole, his campaign was a bit up and down. As usual, Dortmund has a young, promising and very exciting squad, including the signing of Jude Bellingham's younger brother Jobe. With a full season now settled into the team, it could be a very enjoyable year for both Guirassy and Dortmund.

Other contenders

To be completely honest, it seems almost unrealistic that none of our three main candidates will end up as top scorer once the season is over. Still, there are a few more players who certainly have the potential to at least finish very high on the list.

Jonathan Burkardt, Eintracht Frankfurt

Mainz had a season that exceeded expectations last year, finishing sixth, and one of the big reasons for that was Jonathan Burkardt, who scored 18 goals. This season he has moved to a stronger side in Eintracht Frankfurt, where he is expected to replace the departed Hugo Ekitike (Liverpool). It is by no means unrealistic to think that he could improve further in his new environment.

Loïs Openda, RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig had a shaky season, finishing seventh, and it feels like they may have started to lose their status as a true top club in the league as it becomes increasingly difficult to replace the big players they've lost over the last years (and this summer Benjamin eko departed). Nevertheless, they still have an exciting squad and have brought in major talents such as Belgian duo Johan Bakayoko from PSV Eindhoven and Arthur Vermeeren from Atlético Madrid. But it is another Belgian who is expected to provide the goals for Leipzig, namely Loïs Openda. Last season he managed only 9 goals, but the year before he scored 24, so he is a proven goal scorer who now needs to rediscover his previous form.

Victor Boniface, Bayer Leverkusen

Another player who didn't have a successful offensive season last year was Bayer Leverkusen's Nigerian striker Victor Boniface. He started brilliantly with 6 goals in 8 matches but then got injured and never regained his initial form. A fit Boniface can score plenty of goals this season and finish high up in the scoring charts.

Ermedin Demirovic, Stuttgart

Ermedin Demirovic was signed by Stuttgart as Guirassy's replacement last season. He did a fine job, scoring 15 goals - the same number he had managed the year before at Augsburg. Now, after a year of settling in at Stuttgart, perhaps the Bosnian can increase his tally even further.

Bayern Munich's other attacking weapons

Even though so much of Bayern Munich's goal scoring conversation revolves around Harry Kane, the team is hardly short of other attacking threats. Already in place were Germany's Jamal Musiala and the French forward Michael Olise, who both scored 12 goals last season, along with Serge Gnabry. And ahead of this season, the attack has been further bolstered by the addition of Colombian Luis Díaz, signed from Liverpool for 75 million euro. All of these players are dangerous offensively, but none are the kind of prolific scorer required to win a Golden Boot. But still, they all have the potential to rank high in the scoring charts.