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The European Golden Shoe is awarded to the highest goalscorer in league matches from the top division of every European country's national league. Lionel Messi, as expected, is the record-winner of the coveted prize with five wins, while his arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo has won the award four times. The prize was first constituted in the 1967-68 season and was initially given out by the French magazine L'Équipe. Since the 1996-97 season, however, the prize has been awarded by the European Sports Media , an association of football related publications from across Europe.
Till the 1996-97 reason, the prize was given based on absolute number of goals scored, with no regard to the relative strengths of each league and the number of games played. From the 1996-97 revamp, however, the award was given away on the basis of a points system. Weightages are assigned to various leagues depending on the respective league's rankings as per UEFA coefficients. For example, La Liga has a weightage of two, which means Messi's every league goal is worth two points, while the Dutch Eridivise weighs in at 1.5, which implies that every goal Ajax's Dusan Tadic scores in the league is worth 1.5 points.
This season has seen a flurry of goals in the various leagues in Europe. From Robert Lewandowski, Timo Werner, Paco Alcacer and Luka Jovic in Germany to Mohammed Salah, Sergio Aguero, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Sadio Mane in England to Messi, Luis Suarez, Karim Benzema and Wissam Ben Yedder in Spain to Ronaldo, Fabio Quagliarella, Duvan Zapata and Krzysztof Piatek in Italy. Many star names are battling it out for this top honour. With most European leagues drawing to a close in the coming weeks, in this article we will take a look at the top five contenders for Europe's top goalscoring accolade.
#5 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Duvan Zapata (Atalanta), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal), Sadio Mane (Liverpool) and Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) - 22 goals and 44 points each
The fifth position sees five accomplished forwards. Bayern Munich and Bundesliga's top scorer Robert Lewandowski (Poland) as well as the Italian Seria A's second top scorer Duvan Zapata of Atalanta (Columbia) made their presence felt with incredible performances this season. They are joined by this season's Premier League top scorers - Mohammed Salah (Egypt), Sadio Mane (Senegal), with both belonging to Liverpool and Arsenal's Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang (Gabon).
Zapata has been a revelation this season for Atalanta, playing an instrumental part in the Italian side's push for Champions League qualification. Lewandowski has been in terrific form yet again for Bayern Munich as they approach the last game of the season with a two-point lead over Borussia Dortmund. With the second top scorer in the Bundesliga being Paco Alcacer of Dortmund with 18 goals, barring a miracle, Lewandowski is expected to win his fourth 'kicker Torjägerkanone' (kicker top scorer cannon), the title awarded to the Bundesliga's top scorer. Mane and Salah's league exploits were not enough for Liverpool to win the Premier League title as they lost out to a resolute Manchester City side by a single point. Aubameyang's impressive season was instrumental in Arsenal making a push for a top 4 spot, although they just missed out on it. The Gunners still have hope of qualifying for next season's Champions League if they defeat Chelsea in the final of the Europa League.
Even though the awarding body does not look at minutes per goal to determine the winner, to differentiate the five players we have in the fifth position, here is a tabulation of the same:
- Duvan Zapata (Atalanta)-22 goals from 2720 minutes, 123 minutes per goal
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)-22 goals from 2733 minutes, 124 minutes per goal
- Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)-22 goals from 2869 minutes, 130 minutes per goal
- Sadio Mane (Liverpool)-22 goals from 3086 minutes, 140 minutes per goal
- Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)-22 goals from 3262 minutes, 148 minutes per goal
#4 Mbaye Diagne - 30 goals and 45 points
It might surprise many to find that Mane isn't the top scoring Senegalese in this list. But such has been the form of Turkish Super Lig's top scorer Mbaye Diang. In a league that has a weightage coefficient of 1.5 as opposed to two of England, Italy, France, Spain and Germany, the 6 foot 4 inch striker has smashed in 30 goals to accumulate 45 points. Interestingly, the striker started the 2018-19 season as a player of Kasimpasa but his red-hot form (20 goals in 17 appearances) triggered a mid-season transfer to Turkish giants Galatasaray. The Senegalese sensation continued his ridiculous form in Istanbul, slotting in a further 10 goals in 11 games to finish the season as the league's top scorer. To put his dominance into perspective, the next highest goalscorer in the Super Lig, Burak Yilmaz of Besiktas has managed only 16 goals this campaign.
#3 Fabio Quagliarella - 26 goals and 52 points
It is no mean feat to lead the goalscoring charts in a league that also inlcludes the likes of Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala, Krzysztof Piatek, Mario Mandzukic, Edin Dzeko and Zapata. Yet, this is exactly what has been accomplished by the 36-year-old Fabio Quagliarella. The Sampdoria striker leads the race for the 'Capocannoniere' (head gunner) award given to the top scorer in Italy, with two matchdays left to go. He has 26 goals, while Zapata and Ronaldo has 22 and 21 strikes to their name respectively.
The Italian, who has represented eight different clubs in his career, is known for his audacious finishes and he has used his experience and guile to guide a modest Sampdoria outfit this season to the 9th spot in the Seria A. During this season, he scored in an incredible 11 consecutive games, a record previously achieved in the Serie A only by the legendary Gabriel Batistuta.
#2 Kylian Mbappe - 30 goals and 60 points
In the long absence of talisman Neymar through injury, Kylian Mbappe has shown maturity beyond his years this season to take up the goalscoring responsibilites at Paris Saint-Germain. The mercurial 20-year-old striker seemed like the only player capable of giving Messi any competition in the race for the European Golden Shoe. This hope, however, got dashed once the young World Cup winner got himself banned for three out of PGS's final four Ligue 1 games due to a red-card foul in the French Cup final against Rennes. With the game evenly poised at 2-2, Mbappe was given a straight red card in the 118th minute for a rash challenge on Rennes defender Damien da Silva. PSG went on to lose the game via penalties and missed out on a domestic double. Mbappe apparently caught his opponent on the knee with his studs showing and was given his marching orders immediately.
#1 Lionel Messi - 34 goals and 68 points
To be honest, we are out of adjectives to describe the genius of this man. Messi is having another superb season with Barcelona, leading the roost in La Liga, the UEFA Champions League as well as the European Golden Shoe goalscoring races. Having led Barcelona to their seventh La Liga title in the last 10 years by scoring an incredible 34 goals, and with one game to go, the 'Messiah' seems to have wrapped up his sixth Golden Shoe award and looks like the favorite for the Ballon d'Or as well. 'La Pulga' will, however, be seething from the shock ouster of Barcelona from the Champions League at the hands of Liverpool in the semi-finals and will be looking to take out his frustrations on Valencia in the Copa del Rey final as Barcelona look poised for a second consecutive domestic double
