New Delhi: The Copa America 2024 round of 16 concluded on July 2. From 16 teams at the start of the tournament, eight teams advanced to the quarterfinals. The race for individual brilliance to clinch the Golden Boot, among other awards, has fired up.
It has been a dream tournament for some like Argentina’s Lautaro Martinez who currently leads the scoring charts while few like Colombia’s skipper James Rodrigues has been pivotal in pulling strings in his team’s success so far by assisting thrice.
Let’s take a look at the top contenders in the race and their chances of finishing on the top of the charts.
Player
Team
Goals
Lautaro Martínez
Argentina
4
Darwin Núñez
Uruguay
2
Maximiliano Araújo
Uruguay
2
Folarin Balogun
USA
2
Vinícius Junior
Brazil
2
Lautaro Martinez – Argentina
It has been a dream tournament for Argentina’s Lautaro Martinez who currently leads the scoring charts with four goals in three games. He feels he has put his World Cup struggles firmly behind him by getting among the goal scorers in Copa.
Inter Milan forward Martinez was the leading scorer in Serie A in the 2023-24 season finishing the group stage as not just the tournament’s leading scorer. Martinez is also the Argentina’s player with the most shots (nine) despite not starting the two out of the three games.
Other than him only two Argentina players have scored more goals in a single edition of the tournament in the 21st century – Roman Riquelme in 2007 and Lionel Messi in 2016, both netting five goals each.
Darwin Nunez – Uruguay
Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez entered the Copa in fine form topping his 15 goal debut campaign by scoring 18 goals in all competitions. The 24 year old has played in each of their three games, scoring in the 3-1 win against Panama and the 5-0 victory over Bolivia.
Martinez has scored 13 goals in 26 international appearances. He even scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Mexico in their final preparation games for Copa America. Many even expect him to add to that tally in the coming matches.
Vinicius Junior – Brazil
The Brazilian star finished the 2023-24 campaign as Real Madrid’s top scorer with 24 goals, leading his side to the 15th championship win in the competition. He continued his form and has become the biggest goal-scoring threat in Copa America. In his six appearances for Brazil in 2024, he scored two crucial goals.
Vinicius Junior has rapidly become one of the best-attacking players in the world. Without Neymar in Brazil’s side, the Real Madrid striker has been the star of the show for them. Though he won’t be available for the quarterfinals because of suspension, he surely will be well poised to add to his international tally.
Take a look at who is winning the battle to be top scorer of the Copa America Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
