Barcelona striker Luis Suarez won the race for European Golden Shoe, presented to the best striker playing in Europe. The Uruguayan had earlier shared the award whilst playing for Liverpool with Ronaldo after both of them scored 31 goals for their respective clubs at the end of the 2013-14 season.
The 29-year-old won the award on the back of scoring 40 goals for Barcelona in La Liga this season. Suarez’s tally beats that of closest Golden Shoe challenger Gonzalo Higuain who scored 36 goals in Serie A.
Cristiano Ronaldo came third as Gonzalo Higuain’s final day hat-trick for Napoli resulted in the Argentine leapfrogging the Portuguese to second position.
In what is an indictment of the quality of the Premier League, its lone representation in the top ten contenders for the Golden Shoe was Tottenham’s Harry Kane, who was ninth on the list with his 25 goals.
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The Golden Shoe award is not solely based on the number of goals scored. It is a combination of two factors; the goals scored by a player and the UEFA coefficient of the league in which the player is based.
A player’s goal tally is multiplied with the UEFA coefficient ranking of the league. The toughest leagues have the highest ranking of 2.0 and the lowest is 1.0, mid-level leagues have a ranking of 1.5.
This is the reason why Zlatan Ibrahimovic only ended up sixth on the list even after scoring 38 goals in Ligue 1 for Paris Saint-Germain. His 38 goals are multiplied only by 1.5 as Ligue 1 does not feature in the best leagues of Europe. Ronaldo’s ranking was higher in spite of his lower goal tally because his tally was multiplied by 2.0 as he plays in La Liga which is a higher ranked league.
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The Golden Shoe caps off a brilliant year for the Uruguayan marksman. He has scored more than 50 goals in all competitions this season, resulting in a La Liga triumph for Barcelona. He scored 14 goals over the last 5 games as Barcelona went on a run of 24 goals scored without conceding in a relentless charge for the title.
The list of the ten finalists for the Golden Shoe along with their rankings is given below.
| European Golden Shoe standings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | Club | Goals | Multiplier | Points |
Luis Suarez | Barcelona | 40 | 2.0 | 80 |
Gonzalo Higuain | Napoli | 36 | 2.0 | 72 |
Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 35 | 2.0 | 70 |
Jonas | Benfica | 32 | 2.0 | 64 |
Robert Lewandowski | Bayern Munich | 30 | 2.0 | 60 |
Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Paris St Germain | 38 | 1.5 | 57 |
Islam Slimani | Sporting Lisbon | 27 | 2.0 | 54 |
Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 26 | 2.0 | 52 |
Harry Kane | Tottenham | 25 | 2.0 | 50 |
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Borussia Dortmund | 25 | 2.0 | 50 |
