Who will be AFCON 2024 top goal scorer? Prediction, odds, best bets for Golden Boot at 2023 Africa Cup of Nations

The Africa Cup of Nations once again sees the best African players from top clubs across the world convene for the continent's international championship.

Played every two years, the 2023 tournament has been shifted to early 2024 thanks to delays in the schedule dating back to the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, players at European clubs are in the midst of their league seasons, which could make for an interesting competition.

The Africa Cup of Nations is traditionally a low-scoring affair, with the 2021 tournament featuring just 100 goals in 52 matches, an average of less than two goals per game.

Thus, finding a top goal scorer is a difficult task, knowing that one big game could set a player up well to emerge with the tournament's Golden Boot award in the end.

USA: Click here to see the latest odds for 2023 Africa Cup of Nations matches

Given the low-scoring nature of this tournament historically, it's anyone's guess from an individual perspective, and thus choosing from the list of potential top goal scorers in AFCON 2023 is fraught with danger. Everywhere you look there are players either in-form players in bad national team situations, or top national team sides sporting players in adverse club environments. There's no clear favourite — which makes this such a fun exercise.

Mohamed Salah of Liverpool tops the list, and understandably so as he has led the Reds to the top of the Premier League table with yet another prolific campaign. However, he plays for a national team that is defensive to a fault, famously scoring just four goals in their entire 2021 tournament as they went all the way to the final, playing out an outlandish three scoreless draws from four knockout games.

Salah's former teammate Sadio Mane started well at