Top 10 contenders for the European Golden Shoe 2017/18

The Golden Shoe, awarded - as you are undoubtedly well aware - to the top scorer in league competition across all of Europe's major league competitions is a prestigious award that Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Luis Suarez have taken turns in dominating over the past decade.

This time, though, there's a newbie atop the pile, and he's going to take some dislodging.

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#10. Luis Suarez

Suarez celebrates!

Points: 46

Goals: 23

Matches: 28

Goals per Match: 0.82

When the season started, El Pistolero had been written off - a spent force they said, unlikely to ever recover from that debilitating knee injury they said - but now, toward the end of it, he's showing them all what makes him such a special footballer.

Almost back to his goalscoring best, the Uruguayan's league goals have helped Barca sustain their unbeaten run and he appears to be hitting peak form just in time for the World Cup

#9 Cristiano Ronaldo

Smack!

Points: 48

Goals: 24

Matches: 25

Goals per Match: 0.96

Hah. Now here's a player most people thought would never appear on this list again. After having scored the grand total of one league goal until November, Cristiano Ronaldo spent his Christmas envisioning a 2018 where he'd be so far behind Leo Messi in the eternal Messi-Ronaldo rivalry charts that he'd become invisible... and sick to his stomach about it, decided to do something about it.

Shameless plug - The moral of the story? Never, ever, write off Cristiano Ronaldo

So, come January, he started scoring at a fair rate of knots... and he's not stopping anytime soon.

#8 Jonas

Jonas is Benfica's heartbeat!

Points: 49.5

Goals: 33

Matches: 28

Goals per Match: 1.18

For those who may have judged Benfica's 2017/18 season using only the small sample they provided during their abysmal Champions League campaign, this may come as a surprise, but the Eagles have been quite good this season - and a large part of that is down to the undoubted goalscoring prowess of Jonas.

The veteran's scored more goals than anyone on this list - and he's done it faster - nobody even comes close to his goals per match ratio - but the lower multiplication factor he faces in the Liga Nos (1.5 vs 2 for everyone else) means this is a summit that's virtually insurmountable.

#7 (tied) Edinson Cavani

Cavani strikes, Cavani scores

Points: 50

Goals: 25

Matches: 29

Goals per Match: 0.86

This season was supposed to be about Neymar. About Kylian Mbappe... they were the new jewels in the oil-smoothed French crown, and they started the season on fire - following the former's injury and the latter's tailing off, there remains but one man standing. The man who's been there since the beginning... the man who just can't stop scoring in PSG blue.

Edinson Cavani is comfortably Ligue 1's highest scorer this season and if he continues in this vein it's unlikely anyone will usurp that crown anytime soon.

#7 (tied) Mauro Icardi

What is it with Argentines and showing off their jerseys?

Points: 50

Goals: 25

Matches: 29

Goals per Match: 0.86

Forget the controversies surrounding his personal life, forget his outspoken agent/wife, forget about his drama with the Inter ultras... on current form, Mauro Icardi should wear no. 9 for Argentina and he spent the entirety of this season proving that very same point wearing no. 9 for Internazionale.

The first Inter striker to touch the 25-league-goals milestone since Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Icardi's been in great nick this year and it would be foolhardy of Sampaoli to overlook him for the WC 2018 squad

#5 Harry Kane

Harry Kane celebrates a goal he scored. No, he actually did score it this time.

Points: 52

Goals: 26

Matches: 33

Goals per Match: 0.79

Make fun of him all you want - and he really ought to be made a little fun of, if not for lodging an official appeal to claim a goal, then for feeling the need to swear about it on his daughter's life - but Harry Kane is one of the world's best pure goalscorers.

He craves goals like some of us crave Instagram likes, and he gets them like he's Kim K on the aforementioned social media platform. With the season still not done - and only the FA Cup to worry about elsewhere - Kane will be hell-bent on catching up with the man on the top and retaining his status as English football's top scorer.

#4 Ciro Immobile

Ciro - out there proving that his surname is very much an antonym of his persona

Points: 54

Goals: 27

Matches: 29

Goals per Match: 0.93

The Lazio ace has been in spectacular form this season - taking over the "wait, what's he doing atop the Capocannoniere rankings" tag from Andrea Belotti (remember him?) - and he's been bagging goals with absurd ease for a team that has more goals in Serie A than any other (bar Juve, always bar Juve).

Immobile has been a consistent name on this list, and the Italian deserves plaudits for his great consistency.

#3 Robert Lewandowski

You'd smile like that too if you were Robert

Points: 54

Goals: 27

Matches: 27

Goals per Match: 1.00

Named so that he could easily become a well-known footballer internationally, no seriously, Robert Lewandowski's certainly become that. And more. One of world football's most ruthlessly consistent goalscorers, the Pole has seen himself plonk atop the Torjägerkanone rankings and has seen him play at a level of efficiency that's just plain ol' frightening.

His goal, after coming on with Bayern 4-1 up against Borussia Monchengladbach showed this ruthlessness, this single-minded determination to score come what may in the best possible light... as he smacked in the 5th with aplomb.

#2 Lionel Messi

Leo Messi doing Leo Messi things... look at that defender's face!

Points: 58

Goals: 29

Matches: 32

Goals per Match: 0.91

Hah. That man. After starting the season like he wanted to hit that 91 goals mark again, the great man tailed off a little in the middle, before picking it up and keeping up his scoring rate at 0.91 a match.

And he's been doing this for a decade.

The consistency is utterly mind-boggling.

#1 Mohamed Salah

Asmir Begovic can't quite believe the genius of Mohammed Salah

Points: 60

Goals: 30

Matches: 32

Goals per Match: 0.94

The Pharoah. The King. What a season Mohamed Salah is having for Liverpool... with a left foot that is only surpassed by the man just below him in these standings and an underrated footballing intelligence he's romped through the Premier League as the spearhead of a wonderfully attack-minded Liverpool unit and he's going to take some catching - both in England, and across Europe.