A busy weekend in the upper reaches of the ESM Golden Shoe, with a remarkable nine out of the top ten goalscorers on target, and among them, three players managed a hat-trick.

Top of the tree is Liverpool’s Luis Suarez whose hat-trick in Liverpool’s 6-3 win at Cardiff City takes his tally for the season to 28. The Uruguayan now leads by four points from Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored in Sunday’s clasico, but was eclipsed by arch-rival Lionel Messi, who hit three to give Barcelona a memorable 4-3 win.

Sandwiched between Ronaldo and Messi is Atletico Madrid’s Diego Costa, who maintained his rich vein of form by scoring in his side’s 2-0 win over Real Betis. The Spanish international currently occupies third sport in the standings but must be aware that Messi, with back-to-back hat-tricks, is closing the gap fast.

Elsewhere, there were goals for Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge, Red Bull Salzburg duo Jonatan Soriano and Alan (the latter a hat-trick), Bayern Munich’s Mario Mandzukic, Heerenveen’s Alfred Finnbogason, and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema, who scored twice, and enters the top ten for the first time this season.

POS PLAYER TEAM GOALS FACTOR PTS

1. Luis Suarez (Liverpool) 28 x 2 = 56
2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 26 x 2 = 52
3. Diego Costa (Atlético Madrid) 23 x 2 = 46
4. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 21 x 2 = 42
5. Jonatan Soriano (Red Bull Salzburg) 26 x 1.5 = 39
6. Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool) 19 x 2 = 38
7. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain) 25 x 1.5 = 37.5
8. ‘Alan’ Douglas Borges De Carvalho (Red Bull Salzburg) 24 x 1.5 = 36
Alfred Finnbogason (Heerenveen) 24 x 1.5 = 36
10. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) 17 x 2 = 34
Mario Mandzukic (Bayern Munich) 17 x 2 = 34
Alexis Sánchez (Barcelona) 17 x 2 = 34
13. Ciro Immobile (Torino) 16 x 2 = 32
Robert Lewandowksi (Borussia Dortmund) 16 x 2 = 32
Carlos Tevez (Juventus) 16 x 2 = 32
Yaya Touré (Manchester City) 16 x 2 = 32
17. Omer Damari (Hapoel Tel Aviv) 21 x 1.5 = 31.5
18. Sergio Agüero (Manchester City) 15 x 2 = 30
Antoine Griezmann (Real Sociedad) 15 x 2 = 30
Jackson Martinez (Porto) 15 x 2 = 30
Graziano Pellè (Feyenoord) 20 x 1,5 = 30
Adrian Ramos (Hertha Berlin) 15 x 2 = 30
23. Eden Hazard (Chelsea) 14 x 2 = 28
Gonzalo Higuaín (Napoli) 14 x 2 = 28
‘Pedro’ Rodríguez Ledesma (Barcelona) 14 x 2 = 28
Giuseppe Rossi (Fiorentina) 14 x 2 = 28
27. Michy Batshuayi (Standard Liege) 18 x 1.5 = 27
Nerijus Valskis (FK Suduva) 27 x 1 = 27
Eran Zahavi (Maccabi Tel Aviv) 18 x 1.5 = 27
30. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund) 13 x 2 = 26
Josip Drmic (Nürnberg) 13 x 2 = 26
‘Roberto Firmino’ Barbosa de Oliveira (Hoffenheim) 13 x 2 = 26
‘Javi Guerra’ Rodríguez (Real Valladolid) 13 x 2 = 26
Fredy Montero (Sporting) 13 x 2 = 26
Rodrigo Palacio (Internazionale) 13 x 2 = 26
‘Raffael’ Caetano de Araújo (Borussia Mönchengladbach) 13 x 2 = 26
Loïc Remy (Newcastle United) 13 x 2 = 26
Jay Rodriguez (Southampton) 13 x 2 = 26
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) 13 x 2 = 26
Luca Toni (Verona) 13 x 2 = 26
41. Hamdi Harbaoui  Lokeren) 17 x 1.5 = 25.5
42. Carlos Arturo Bacca (Sevilla) 12 x 2 = 24
Leon Benko (HNK Rijeka) 16 x 1.5 = 24
Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo) 12 x 2 = 24
Duje Cop (Dinamo Zagreb) 16 x 1.5 = 24
Van’Derley’ Dias Marinho (Maritimo) 12 x 2 = 24
Marko Devic (Metalist Kharkiv/Rubin Kazan) 16 x 1.5 = 24
Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) 12 x 2 = 24
Joe Gormley (Cliftonville) 24 x 1 = 24
Aron Jóhannsson (AZ Alkmaar) 16 x 1.5 = 24
Stefan Kiessling (Bayer  Leverkusen) 12 x 2 = 24
Andrej Kramaric (Dinamo Zagreb/NK Rijeka) 16 x 1.5 = 24
Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich) 12 x 2 = 24
Marcin Robak (MKS Pogon Szczecin) 16 x 1.5 = 24
Gastón Sangoy (Apollon Limassol) 16 x 1,5 = 24
David Villa (Atlético Madrid) 12 x 2 = 24
57. Vladimir Voskoboinikov (Nõmme Kalju) 23 x 1 = 23
58. Marcus Berg (Panathinaikos) 15 x 1.5 = 22.5
Thomas Dalgaard (Viborg) 15 x 1.5 = 22.5
Philipp Zulechner (SV Grödig/Freiburg) 15 x 1.5 = 22.5
61. Aritz Aduriz (Athletic  Bilbao) 11 x 2 = 22
Youssef El-Arabi (Getafe) 11 x 2 = 22
Mario Balotelli (Milan) 11 x 2 = 22
Antonio Cassano (Parma) 11 x 2 = 22
Alessio Cerci (Torino) 11 x 2 = 22
Alberto Gilardino (Genoa) 11 x 2 = 22
Rimo Hunt (Levadia Tallinn) 22 x 1 = 22
Pierre-Michel Lasogga (Hamburger) 11 x 2 = 22
Rodrigo José ‘Lima’ dos Santos (Benfica) 11 x 2 = 22
Fernando Llorente (Juventus) 11 x 2 = 22
Romelu Lukaku (Everton) 11 x 2 = 22
Shinji Okazaki (Mainz ) 11 x 2 = 22
Sergio Betanin ‘Paulinho’ (Livorno) 11 x 2 = 22
Robin van Persie (Manchester United) 11 x 2 = 22
Ivan Rakitic (Sevilla ) 11 x 2 = 22
Arturo Vidal (Juventus) 11 x 2 = 22
Ikechuwku Uche (Villarreal ) 11 x 2 = 22
Standings last updated 24/03/2014

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.