Bayern trio new in top 30
With 26 goals and 22 of a possible 24 points, Paris Saint-Germain leads Ligue 1, no team from the top 5 European leagues has scored more often this season. 19 goals alone can be attributed to the offensive trio of Lionel Messi (4), Kylian Mbappé (7) and Neymar (8), who, if you include national and international cup competitions, have already celebrated 27 times in eleven games. A quota that makes the three world stars currently the most accurate trio in Europe – with continued clocking and successes in the Champions League and Coupe de France, the record of 131 goals, which has not been achieved in this millennium, could be broken.
“MSN” & “BBC” dominate: The most dangerous scoring trios since 2000 (top 5 leagues)
Two of the three current PSG professionals were involved in the latter: together with strike partner Luis Suárez, Messi and Neymar set the record in the 2015/16 season in the service of FC Barcelona. The trio, dubbed “MSN” by fans and the media, trumped their masterly performance of 122 goals from the previous year. Remarkable: Most of the goals this year did not go to the account of the six-time world footballer Messi, but were contributed by Suárez. The Uruguayan has struck 59 times in 53 games, the best season of his career and the only time since 2007/08 that Messi hasn’t been the Catalans’ top scorer.
In total, Messi has made it into the top 30 trios eleven times with different team-mates since 2000. In 2008/09 he was assisted by Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry (100 goals), three years later by Cesc Fàbregas and Xavi (102) and most recently 2018/19 Suarez and Ousmane Dembele (88). However, he had the three most successful seasons with Suárez and Neymar, occupying three of the top four places. Real Madrid are in third place around Cristiano Ronaldo – the Portuguese (60) scored 118 goals together with Karim Benzema (32) and Gonzalo Higuaín (26) in the 2011/12 season.
Ronaldo and Benzema, even in combination with Gareth Bale, were not able to match this record in the following years: With 100 goals for the royals in the 2014/15 season, the trio known as “BBC” found their place in the top 30 ranking for the first time 6 again. During their time at Real, the three attackers were even more successful in terms of titles than in terms of hit rate: In five seasons together, they brought the Champions League trophy to the Spanish capital four times before Ronaldo made the 117 million euro move to Juventus decided. The now 37-year-old was not able to re-enter the millennium ranking of the most prolific trios either with the “Old Lady” or after his return to Manchester United – not a single Serie A club is represented. With the FC Bayern combination of Robert Lewandowski, Serge Gnabry and Thomas Müller (92 goals in 2019/20), there is a non-Spanish trio in 12th place for the first time.
Season 2022/23: 5x Bundesliga among Europe’s top scoring trios
The Munich team, who have been listed four times, were the only team in Europe to have a new representative in the ranking last season: Lewandowski (50), Gnabry (17) and Leroy Sané (14) finished in 24th place with 81 goals a. VfL Wolfsburg, for whom Edin Dzeko (35), Grafite (35) and Zvjezdan Misimovic (11) scored just as many stalls in the 2008/09 championship year, is also the second of a total of three German clubs. In addition, there is the BVB trio of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (39), Marco Reus (23), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (23), who are in 20th place with 85 goals during the 2015/16 season.
A look at the current season shows that there are now five Bundesliga teams in the top 10 led by the PSG trio mentioned at the beginning: while Jamal Musiala (6) and Sadio Mané (5) replaced Lewandowski and Gnabry, who had migrated, and together with Leroy Sané (5) form the third most dangerous trio, the Mönchengladbach combination consisting of Marcus Thuram (6), Jonas Hofmann (5) and Ramy Bensebaini (3) played in fifth place with 14 goals – directly followed by the Freiburg axis Vincenzo Grifo (4), Michael Gregoritsch (5) and Ritsu Doan (5).
Table leader Union Berlin, where Sheraldo Becker, Jordan and Sven Michel were instrumental in the sporting high flight of the Köpenickers with their twelve goals, is in 9th place. If Becker has his way, the Union could continue to improve in the coming weeks: “I have more potential and I want to show everyone that,” the 27-year-old said during the week. Christopher Nkunku (6), Timo Werner (4) and Dani Olmo (2) from RB Leipzig also scored twelve goals, which means that they now also stand in line with Real Madrid’s offensive series of Vinicius Junior (5), Federico Valverde (4) and Rodrygo (3 ) from the current top 10.
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