It’s taken him a while but Cristiano Ronaldo is back where he feels he belongs: top of the ESM Golden Shoe standings.
Four goals in Real Madrid’s 7-1 thrashing of Celta Vigo took last season’s Golden Shoe winner to 27 goals for the season and ensured he leapfrogged several rivals to become Europe’s leading goalscorer.
The battle for the top spot is a tight one, though, with three players locked in joint second place – just one behind the prolific Portuguese forward. Longstanding leader, Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain has now been joined by Barcelona’s Luis Suarez and Benfica’s Jonas on 26 goals for the season.
Three behind this trio comes Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowsi who has now scored 23, one more than Bundesliga rival Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with Lionel Messi, scorer of a brace in Barcelona’s 4-0 win over Eibar, two goals further adrift. The top ten is completed by Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Eran Zahavi, Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy.
POS PLAYER TEAM GOALS FACTOR PTS
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 27 x 2 = 54
2. Gonzalo Higuaín (Napoli) 26 x 2 = 52
‘Jonas’ Goncalves (Benfica) 26 x 2 = 52
Luis Suárez (Barcelona) 26 x 2 = 52
5. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) 23 x 2 = 46
6. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund) 22 x 2 = 44
7. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 21 x 2 = 42
8. Eran Zahavi (Maccabi Tel Aviv) 27 x 1,5 = 40,5
9. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) 19 x 2 = 38
Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) 19 x 2 = 38
11. Romelu Lukaku (Everton) 18 x 2 = 36
‘Neymar’ da Silva Santos (FC Barcelona) 18 x 2 = 36
Islam Slimani (Sporting Club) 18 x 2 = 36
14. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain) 23 x 1,5 = 34,5
Nemanja Nikolic (Legia Warszawa) 23 x 1,5 = 34,5
16. Aritz Adúriz (Athletic Bilbao) 17 x 2 = 34
Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) 17 x 2 = 34
Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich) 17 x 2 = 34
19. ‘Alex Teixeira‘ Santos (Shakhtar Donetsk) 22 x 1,5 = 33
20. Sergio Agüero (Manchester City) 16 x 2 = 32
‘Borja’ González Tomás (Eibar) 16 x 2 = 32
22. Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid) 15 x 2 = 30
‘Lucas’ Pérez (Deportivo La Coruña) 15 x 2 = 30
Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City) 15 x 2 = 30
25. Fernando Cavenaghi (APOEL Nicosia) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
26. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) 14 x 2 = 28
‘Rubén Castro’ Martín (Real Betis) 14 x 2 = 28
Javier Hernández (Bayer Leverkusen) 14 x 2 = 28
Odion Ighalo (Watford) 14 x 2 = 28
Konstantinos Mitroglou (Benfica) 14 x 2 = 28
Bruno Daniel Moreira (Paços Ferreira) 14 x 2 = 28
Tomas Radzinevicius (FK Süduva Marijampole) 28 x 1 = 28
33. Luuk de Jong (PSV Eindhoven) 18 x 1,5 = 27
34. Imanol Agirretxe (Real Sociedad) 13 x 2 = 26
Carlos Bacca (Milan) 13 x 2 = 26
‘Léo Bonatini’ Lohner Maia (GD Estoril-Praia) 13 x 2 = 26
Paulo Dybala (Juventus) 13 x 2 = 26
Kévin Gameiro (Sevilla) 13 x 2 = 26
Clecildo ‘Rafael Martins’ de Souza (Moreirense) 13 x 2 = 26
40. Vincent Janssen (AZ Alkmaar) 17 x 1,5 = 25,5
Jonatan Soriano (Red Bull Salzburg) 17 x 1,5 = 25,5
42. David Arshakyan (FK Trakai) 25 x 1 = 25
Leigh Griffiths (Celtic) 25 x 1 = 25
Richard Towell (Dundalk) 25 x 1 = 25
45. ‘Eder’ Citadin (Sampdoria/Internazionale) 12 x 2 = 24
Kostas Fortounis (Olympiakos) 16 x 1,5 = 24
Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) 12 x 2 = 24
Mario Gomez (Besiktas) 16 x 1,5 = 24
Mauro Icardi (Internazionale) 12 x 2 = 24
Salomon Kalou (Hertha Berlin) 12 x 2 = 24
Dirk Kuyt (Feyenoord) 16 x 1,5 = 24
Alexander Meier (Eintracht Frankfurt) 12 x 2 = 24
Dino Ndlovu (Anorthosis Famagusta) 16 x 1,5 = 24
Ilija Nestorovski (Inter Zapresic) 16 x 1,5 = 24
‘Raffael’ Caetano de Araújo (Borussia Mönchengladbach) 12 x 2 = 24
Ingemar Teever (Levadia Tallinn) 24 x 1 = 24
57. ‘André Alves’ dos Santos (AEK Larnaca) 15 x 1,5 = 22,5
Dimitar Makriev (Nea Salamis Famagusta) 15 x 1,5 = 22,5
Deniss Rakels (Cracovia Kraków) 15 x 1,5 = 22,5
Lukas Spalvis (Aalborg BK) 15 x 1,5 = 22,5
Nikolai Yanush (Shakhtyor Saligorsk) 15 x 1,5 = 22,5
Rules
Only the leading five countries – Spain, Italy, Germany, England and Portugal – in the UEFA rankings have two as their multiplier. This is to emphasise the difference in (international) performance level between clubs from those countries and those of other nations.A player cannot play first in a summer league (e.g. Norway) and then in a winter league (e.g. Spain) and combine the points totals for each season.
