The race for the Golden Boot award in Europe is one of the most closely contested in recent years. It’s not simply just based on goals scored – different leagues are assigned a difficulty factor. The Bundesliga, Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and the Primeira Liga (Portugal) have all been assigned a difficulty factor of 2.0, but Ligue 1 is rated at 1.5.
Here are the best players competing for the European Golden Shoe:
The Best of the Rest
#10 Cristiano Ronaldo – 18 goals – 36 points
Cristiano Ronaldo has won the European Golden Shoe 4 times, the highest of any player in football. He last won the award 2 seasons ago with 48 goals,
#6 Harry Kane, Edin Dzeko, Robert Lewandowski, Gonzalo Higuain – 19 goals – 38 points
Harry Kane leads the the Premier League in terms of goal scored, with the Tottenham Hotspur striker 1 ahead of Romelu Lukaku. Kane has scored 4 penalties though, compared to none scored by Lukaku.
Edin Dzeko has resurrected his career at AS Roma, after a discouraging season last time around at the Giallorossi. The Bosnian striker’s form has resulted in Roma mounting a title challenge, although he may have to score way more than his 19 goals to stop the Juventus juggernaut.
Robert Lewandowski is ever present in the race for the European Golden Shoe, although the Bayern Munich striker is at an disadvantage having 4 fewer games to play in the Bundesliga.
Gonzalo Higuain broke Serie A’s Capocanniere record last season, scoring 36 goals for Napoli, and is on course to score a similar total for Juventus this time around. The Argentinian will find it tough to end up on top in this race, though – given how hard it is to score in Serie A.
#5 – Luis Suarez – 20 goals – 40 points
The defending champion.
Luis Suarez scored 40 goals in La Liga last season to lift the European Golden Shoe trophy for the second time in his career. The Uruguayan striker has not scored at the same astronomical rate as last season, but is still in the mix for the final prize.
Dovetailing alongside Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr, the Barcelona forward has been crucial to the Catalan giants, scoring 26% of their goals – no small feat when you consider the players alongside him. His 20 goals in 24 games have come at a rate of a goal every 95 minutes.
Suarez has a knack for finishing seasons on a high, so do not count him out in the race for the European Golden Boot just yet – he is only 6 points of the top.
#4 – Edinson Cavani – 27 goals – 40.5 points
Edinson Cavani is the top-scorer in Europe.
So why is he fourth? The vagaries of the system with which the race for the European Golden Shoe is calculated puts Paris St-Germain striker at a disadvantage. Ligue 1 is rated at a difficulty factor of 1.5 – an egregious rating given that the Portuguese League carries a difficulty factor of 2.
Thus Cavani’s 27 goals this season account for 40.5 points, It’s a bit unfair on the striker – whose scoring rate of a goal every 76 minutes is the best in this list. There was plenty of criticism aimed at the Uruguayan at the start of the season after some high-profile misses in front of goal, with plenty of PSG fans pining for the recently departed Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Cavani has shoved the words of his critics back down their throats – he is integral to the defending Ligue 1 champions scoring 52% of their goals this season. However, given that his goals are being scored in Ligue 1, the likelihood of him winning the European Golden Shoe is minimal.
#3 – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 21 goals – 42 points
Strikers in the Bundesliga are inherently at a disadvantage in the race for the European Golden Shoe. Given the German top flight only has 18 teams, Bundesliga strikers have 4 less games in which to rack up their totals, although the difficulty factor remains the same (2.0.)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang couldn’t care less – the Gabonese striker has been racking up the goals at the rate of a goal a game – 21 goals in 21 games. With a shot accuracy of 64%, Aubameyang is one of the most lethal strikers in world football currently, which has seen Dortmund utterly dependant on his goals. The 27-year-old has scored 40% of his side’s goals in the league so far.
Dortmund’s dependance on Aubameyang could prove beneficial for him in the Golden Boot race, as he could overcome the handicap of four less games due to the fact that Thomas Tuchel’s strategy is built with him as the end-goal in mind.
#2 – Andrea Belotti – 22 goals – 44 points
To many, Andrea Belotti is the surprise of the season. To the few Serie A watchers that still exist, the Torino striker's success is simply de riguer - this had been coming.
22 goals in the notoriously defensive league in just 24 games has made the rest of Europe sit up and take notice. It isn't just the rate at which Belotti has been plundering the goals that impress, the manner in which the 23-year-old has got his goals is eye-opening.
Most of the supreme footballers in this list score a majority of their goals with their favoured foot. Belotti has score 5 with his left foot, 8 headed goals and 9 with his right foot. Equally adept at fox-in-the-box style finishes as well as fearsome strikes from distance, Belotti is as close as they come to the archetypal No.9
He's well on track to equalling Gonzalo Huguain's record breaking haul of 36 goals in a Serie A season, but given his closest competitor is a La Liga maestro, Belotti might just find the European Golden Shoe a step too far this season.
#1 – Lionel Messi – 23 goals – 46 points
There has been plenty of criticism aimed at Barcelona this season, but Lionel Messi has been without fault. Not just without fault, Messi has been a one-man show often enough this year, bailing out a faltering Barcelona multiple times. Last-minute penalties, free-kicks, those solo runs – Messi has been firing on all of his magnificent cylinders, even if his teammates haven’t.
With 23 goals in 23 games in La Liga so far, Messi has racked up a goal every game. He’s only played for 1869 minutes this season, scoring at a stunning rate of a goal every 81 minutes. The diminutive Argentinian leads all of Europe in goal contributions so far this season, with 7 assists added to the 23 goals he’s scored.
Despite the amount of competition that he faces for winning the European Golden Boot, Messi’s red hot form might see him win the trophy for the fourth time after a gap of four years, having previously won it in 2010, 2012 and 2013. He’d do well to come close to his record-setting tally of 50 goals in 2011-12 though, given that there are only 15 games left in the league season.
