Cristiano Ronaldo prefers winning Golden Shoe over Ballon d'Or

Cristiano Ronaldo with his fourth Golden Shoe award during the match against Levante

Three time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo says he prefers winning the Golden Shoe award for scoring goals rather than being the best player in the World, according to De Telegraaf. The Portuguese became the first person to win four European Golden Shoes, a feat even his arch-rival Lionel Messi has not been able to achieve yet.

With Lionel Messi being out of action with a knee injury, Ronaldo’s chances of winning a fifth European Golden Shoe award have increased greatly. While he shared his third Golden Shoe with former Liverpool star Luis Suarez, he claimed the award for himself in 2015 after scoring 48 league goals.

Messi, who has already won the trophy on three different occasions, stood a chance of beating Ronaldo to the award when he scored 43 last season but ultimately lost out. Ronaldo though would still be wary of the Argentine, as he definitely has the potential to score more goals than him this season and equal his record of target of four Golden Shoes.

The 30-year-old Portuguese winger knows very well what his competitors are capable of and has said that there is still plenty of competition for the trophy. Some of the players who he felt had the capability of challenging him for the trophy were Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, Sergio Aguero and former Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney from the Premier League, and Luis Suarez and Karim Benzema from the La Liga.

"The competition for the Golden Shoe also comes from other leagues. There are some fantastic strikers around in England and Germany. There are Wayne Rooney and Aguero in the Premier League and obviously Robert Lewandowski in the Bundesliga,” he said.

"But don't forget Karim Benzema here at Real Madrid and Luis Suarez at Barcelona. Benzema is playing very well this season and Suarez has already won the trophy once while at Liverpool.”

He also indicated that this award meant the most to him, saying, “I really love this award. It is the best award out there for me. Others can pick you as the best player, but an attacker's job is to make goals and I love doing that.”

Ronaldo has currently scored six goals this season, the most recent of them coming against Levante in Real Madrid’s 3-0 win. 5 of his goals came in the match against Espanyol in which he also assisted one. However, to be the top goalscorer in Europe, he still has to catch up with Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, who has already scored 12 goals in six matches.