The Portugal international has gone top following his wonder strike against Valencia, while Lionel Messi has moved onto the podium
Real Madrid attacker Cristiano Ronaldo has leapfrogged Liverpool star Luis Suarez at the top of the rankings for the European Golden Shoe thanks to his goal in the 2-2 draw with Valencia on Sunday.
The Portuguese forward has now netted an impressive 31 goals in La Liga this term and holds a one-goal lead over his Uruguayan rival, whose club Liverpool meet Crystal Palace on Monday evening.
Lionel Messi netted once in Barcelona’s 2-2 draw versus Getafe on Saturday and has now moved into third position ahead of Atletico Madrid hitman Diego Costa, who didn’t add to his tally against Levante.
Salzburg duo Jonatan Soriano and Alan both scored once in their side’s 4-0 win over Ried, with the former occupying fifth place and the latter sitting ninth.
Heerenveen striker Alfred Finnbogason was crowned Eredivisie top scorer at the weekend after scoring one goal in the Friezen’s 3-0 win over RKC.
History & How It Works
Players such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Diego Forlan have won the European Golden Shoe in the past few seasons, with the Argentina international as the latest winner of the award following his 46 goals in 2012-13.
Other noteworthy winners include the likes of Francesco Totti, Luca Toni, Ronaldo, Marco van Basten, Eusebio and Gerd Muller.
The weightings are determined by the league’s ranking on the Uefa coefficients, which in turn depend on the results of each league’s clubs in European competition over the previous five seasons. Goals scored in the top five leagues according to the Uefa coefficients are multiplied by a factor of two, and goals scored in the leagues ranked six to 21 are multiplied by 1.5. Goals in all other leagues are worth one single point.
This measure has prevented players from so-called weaker leagues from winning the European Golden Shoe, since a goal scored in, for example, Armenia, Estonia or Azerbaijan, carries less weight than a goal scored in Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga or the Premier League.