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C. Ronaldo Leads The Race For Europe’s Golden Shoe

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo is at the top of the Golden Shoe table once again after another week of European football as he scored in … Continue reading C. Ronaldo Leads The Race For Europe’s Golden Shoe


Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo is at the top of the Golden Shoe table once again after another week of European football as he scored in his team’s 5-0 bashing of Espanyol this weekend. The strike was the Portuguese star’s 30th of the season, and keeps him four points clear of his closest rival, Lionel Messi. The Argentine, however, didn’t feature in Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Sporting Gijon due to suspension.

Robin van Persie, meanwhile, moved four points clear of Trans Narva’s goal-scoring machine Aleksandrs Cekulajevs, with two goals in the 2-1 win at Liverpool to claim third spot, with the Estonian league coming to a close and ending Cekulajev’s goal-scoring party.

Seydou Doumbia returned to CSKA Moscow following his unsuccessful Africa Cup of Nations campaign with Cote d’Ivoire, the Ivorian remains on 36 points, and was joined at sixth place by Antonio Di Natale. The diminutive Italian failed to score as Udinese were held to a goalless draw by Atalanta.

Klass-Jan Huntelaar and Mario Gomez didn’t net this weekend in Germany as their clubs suffered defeats in the Bundesliga, and make up the remainder of the top 10 with Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney.
The weightings are determined by the league’s ranking on the Uefa coefficients, which in turn depend on the results of each league’s clubs in European competition over the previous five seasons. Goals scored in the top five leagues according to the Uefa coefficients are multiplied by a factor of two, and goals scored in the leagues ranked six to 21 are multiplied by 1.5. Goals in all other leagues are all worth one single point.

This measure has prevented players from so-called weaker leagues from winning the European Golden Shoe, since a goal scored in, for example, Armenia, Estonia or Azerbaijan, carries less weight than a goal scored in Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga or the Premier League.

Between 1968 and 1991, football greats Eusebio, Gerd Muller, Ian Rush and Marco van Basten won the coveted trophy.
Players such as Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Forlan and Lionel Messi have won the European Golden Shoe in the past few seasons.

TOP FIVE LIST
NAME CLUB POINTS GOALS
1 Cristiano Ronaldo R/Madrid 60 30
2 Lionel Messi Barcelona 56 28
3 Robin Van Persie Arsenal 50 25
4 Aleksandrs Cekulajevs Trans Narva 46 23
5 Burak Yilmaz Trabzonspor 43.5 29

With Turkey falling under the second cadre in the European rankings, Trabzonspor’s Yilmaz claims fifth spot despite scoring more goals than Lionel Messi who sits at second.