A Starting XI of the Top Scoring Players from Europe's Top 4 Leagues This Season

Goals are why most people watch football. In one of the lowest scoring team sports around, that moment when the ball strikes the back of the net is a rare event in the grand scheme of things.

But those that can repeatedly pull off this most difficult skill are an invaluable commodity. And while forwards understandably gain the most acclaim for goalscoring - with two in particular unsurprisingly finding their way onto this list - it can often go unnoticed when other players in the team chip in with their fair share of strikes.

So, let's take a look at the top-scoring players from each position across the top tiers of England, Germany, Spain and Italy. Although, it's doubtful even this XI would be buccaneering enough for Kevin Keegan and his Entertainers in their pomp.

GK - Rafal Gikiewicz (Union Berlin)

Ok, so no goalkeepers have actually scored a league goal this season but one of the more adventurous number ones has swapped the shot-stopper moniker for shot-taker. Well, sort of. Union Berlin's Rafal Gikiewicz is the only goalie in Europe's top four leagues to have registered as many as two efforts against their opposite number.

As a corner was swung in, with Union seconds away from a defeat, somehow, the only player wearing bright blue escaped the attention of the Bayer Leverkusen defenders. Gikiewicz shot for glory (quite literally) was squandered as he limply nodded a header into the ground before swiping the rebound into the arms of a grateful Lukas Hradecky.

RB - Jonathan Schimd (Freiburg)

Freiburg's free-kick specialist has racked up four goals this season, with two coming from dead-ball scenarios. Fittingly for a goalscoring right-back, Schmid has opted for the equally attack-minded number seven shirt whenever he's had the chance in his career.

CB - Domenico Criscito (Genoa)

Not Sergio Ramos. Not Virgil van Dijk. But the rather less familiar name of Domenico Criscito can lay claim to the most league goals scored by a centre-back this season with seven. Admittedly, all seven have come from the penalty spot but that doesn't necessarily detract from the achievement.

CB - Martin Hinteregger (Eintracht Frankfurt)

Martin Hinteregger is not a defender synonymous with goalscoring - last season he turned the ball into his own net as many times as he managed to score at the correct end.

Yet, this campaign has seen the Austrian stumble across an unprecedented purple patch with six goals - as many as he managed in his previous 93 Bundesliga outings.

LB - Aleksandar Kolarov (Roma)

Technically Philipp Max has scored one more goal than Aleksandar Kolarov but the Augsburg player netted five of those while deployed on the left wing.

So, the former Manchester City full-back takes his place in this goal-getting side with six in Serie A this season, including three free-kicks and two penalties. Kolarov has also taken the approach of expressing his attacking drive through his squad number by opting for the 11 shirt since his days back in the Serbian top flight.

CM - Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)

It's incredible to think that possibly the best creative player in European footballer is also the top-scoring central midfielder. To go alongside the staggering 16 Premier League assists the Belgian has already laid on for his teammates, De Bruyne can also point to nine goals of his own.

Sometimes a player can be so good it almost doesn't seem fair on everyone else.

CM - Marcel Sabitzer (RB Leipzig)

Julian Nagelsmann has improved numerous players during his short time at RB Leipzig already this season, and the 26-year-old Austrian has proven to be one of his star men.

Sabitzer has spent most of the season in a more central role compared to his usual spot on the right-hand side of Leipzig's attack, but despite ostensibly playing in a deeper position, he's knocked in eight Bundesliga goals already this campaign - more than he managed in the past two years combined.

AM - Raúl García (Athletic Club)

Unlike some of the other players on this list, Raúl García is no stranger when it comes to finding the back of the net. Despite largely starting from an attacking midfield role, García has already scored nine goals this term, meaning he's reached this figure six times in the previous nine seasons.

RW - Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

He may be the wrong side of 30 and (whisper it softly) he may be showing some signs of slowing down but Lionel Messi is still Lionel Messi. And even if he has to physically caring the team on his back (as he's been doing that metaphorically for some time now) you wouldn't bet against him reaching double figures.

Yet, at the turn of the year, time seemed to have rapidly caught up with the 32-year-old as he went four La Liga games and 33 consecutive shots goalless. Messi then proceeded to lash four past Eibar and dismiss any doubts with this season's league tally standing at just the 19 goals in 22 games so far.

ST - Ciro Immobile (Lazio)

The current leader for the European Golden Shoe has scored a staggering 27 Serie A goals in just 26 games this season - a greater tally than the total goals scored by three clubs in Italy's top flight this year.

Immobile is almost guaranteed the title of Serie A's Capocannoniere (top scorer) this season, which would be the second of his career, but the Italian has not fared well outside his homeland. Over the span of 18 months at Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla, Immobile mustered just five league goals, yet, in his first full season back on the peninsula, he racked up 23.

LW - Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)

By December, Ronaldo had scored just five Serie A goals all season. However, what followed was a record breaking sequence of 11 consecutive league games in which the Portuguese number seven found the net, taking his tally to 21 in 22 outings, as many as he registered in his debut season with Juventus.