Top Young Forwards with Goal Involvement Ratios Above 0.8 | OneFootball

The summer transfer window always serves as an opportunity to discuss the potential comings and goings, as well as which young players are looking like they could make the biggest impact.

The 2024/25 season was an unusual one in many respects. PSG finally won the Champions League, and there were a lot of teams breaking trophy hoodoos elsewhere in Europe.

Some young stars have also come into people’s psyche, and it can be interesting to analyse those who boast high involvement in goals.

What Goal Involvement Ratio Means

Goal involvement ratio is an important statistic. Bettors will know that it’s one of the main stats that is gathered and used in the betting industry, and it has an impact on how people perceive the football betting markets. For example, some bettors might think that a player who has high involvement in goals is a better option when betting on matters like shots on target.

These statistics can also be used for recruitment. There are a lot of football scouts who spend hours looking through the data and trying to work out which players might be a suitable fit and which might be worth the money to bring to a club.

Michael Olise

Michael Olise’s career has come a long way. Until 2021, he was playing for Reading and hadn’t made a huge impact at a high level of football. Now, however, he’s playing for one of the biggest teams in the world and helping them bring home the trophies. He’s part of a contingent of British-linked players in the Bayern Munich squad, but Olise considers himself French and represents them at an international level.

Olise has scored plenty of goals, in addition to assisting others. Bayern players sometimes have impressive stats due to the sheer dominance of the team in a lot of Bundesliga seasons.

Lamine Yamal

What can we say about Yamal? He’s come through in recent years as an unbelievable talent.

The forward has already established himself in the Barcelona team as well as in the Spain team and has become a key cog in both. He’s got the ability to beat players and takes a lot of shots on goal. He’s becoming one of the most feared names on team sheets all over Europe.

Mika Biereth

Biereth plays for Monaco and is another interesting story. Fans of Motherwell might be surprised to see him on the list after he had a decent (but not mind-blowing) spell on loan at the Scottish club a few years ago. Now, he’s scoring a lot of goals in France.

Biereth didn’t play a full season, so this is one to take with a pinch of salt. But 11 in 13 in 2023/24 playing for Graz and 13 in 16 in 24/25 for Monaco show that he’s not likely to be a flash in the pan. Biereth is a big striker and could well have a few years until he enters his prime.

Erling Haaland

It is unbelievable to still be able to call Erling young, but in footballing terms, he really is. He’s still got 10 or more years playing at the top level if he wishes to.

His last season was injury-hit and wasn’t quite at the level that we saw in his debut Premier League season, but his numbers were still very impressive.

Haaland’s goal-scoring is the main reason he makes these lists time and time again, but we should not forget about the assists he provides. He will now be joined by a striker with some unbelievable numbers as he lines up alongside Omar Marmoush.

Notable Mentions

There are some other players close to making the grade and being listed as potential signings for the big teams next season. In the Championship, Norwich forwards Borja Sainz and Josh Sargent had impressive records and have been linked with moves to the Premier League or overseas.

Playing for Fiorentina, we’ve also noticed that Moise Kean suddenly seems to be getting closer to fulfilling the incredible potential that so many people have believed he possesses for many years.

The recruitment challenge

Scouts and transfer departments in football clubs will be working hard to make some of these deals happen. Scoring and assisting are incredibly difficult aspects of the game, and players who can do so with any regularity are likely to be in demand.

While Haaland and Yamal are already at the top level, some of the other players may be linked with moves away.