There was no doubt about the best team in the French Ligue 1 as Paris Saint-Germain once again cruised to a title, eight points clear of Lyon for the top spot in the table. And there was no denying PSG’s firepower up front as they led the league with 83 goals and a plus-47 goal differential.
Only two other teams in the entire league had scored more than 51 goals, so it is no surprise that they have two representatives on our list of the most impressive strikers from France’s top division. Here is a look at the most impressive strikers from Ligue 1 this past season.
Alexandre Lacazette, Lyon
One of the biggest reasons why Lyon was able to hang around with PSG near the top of the table until the very end of the season was the play of their star striker and Ligue 1’s top scorer, Alexandre Lacazette. The 24-year-old French International scored a league-high 28 goals in 33 appearances this season to top our list of the most impressive strikers in Ligue 1from this past season. This marked the second straight season that he’s improved his goal tally as he had four two years ago and 21 last season. He also added in six assists, which tied him for the 11th most in Ligue 1. The only other striker on this list that has as many assists was Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Lacazette is a player on the rise and he definitely has the potential to lead the league in scoring for years to come.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG
While his final goal total was well shy of the Ligue 1 scoring title, there was no player with a better goals per game than Ibrahimovic this year. The superstar Swede scored 19 goals in just 24 appearances for PSG. Let that sink in: if he would have matched the 33 appearances that Lacazette had, he’d roughly be at 26 goals.
While it’s more than likely that he will part ways with the club following another tumultuous season in which both sides exchanged public blows, there is no doubt about where his contributions rank as one of the most impressive strikers in Ligue 1 play this past season.
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Andre Pierre-Gignac, Marseille
Gignac didn’t score as many goals as Lacazette and he didn’t have as high of an average goals per game as Ibrahimovic, but he did finish second in Ligue 1 scoring with 21 goals in 38 appearances. He proved to be a good value get for fantasy general managers as he didn’t cost nearly as much as Ibrahimovic yet in many ways, he delivered better results. Marseille finished second in French Ligue 1 scoring and Pierre-Gignac was a key reason why.
Edison Cavani, PSG
Cavani reestablished himself as one of Ligue 1’s premier goal scorers as he finished fourth in league scoring with 18 goals in 35 appearances. Unfortunately for Cavani, the fact that he finished with one fewer goal than Ibrahimovic despite playing in 11 more games will take away from his overall performance in the eyes of the fans but in terms of fantasy, who cares. He still delivered the goods even if he had to play more to do so. While he’ll be heavily courted this summer once the transfer window opens, the latest rumors suggest that PSG has no plans to sell Cavani.
Max Gradel, St. Etienne
Gradel was a big reason why St. Etienne was even in the hunt for the fourth spot in the Ligue 1 standings at the end of the season. While they wound up finishing fifth based on their 19 wins (tiebreak went to Marseille because they had more wins), it won’t take away from what was a very impressive performance in its own right. Gradel’s 17 goals in 31 appearances was enough to tie him with Guingamp’s Claudio Beauvue for fifth in Ligue 1. That’s quite an achievement when you consider that he played in five fewer games than him this past season. St. Etienne totaled just 51 goals this season but Gradel had exactly one third of them.
