KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- Lionel Messi’s 400th Spanish league goal for Barcelona at the weekend helped him establish his lead in the race which rewards the leading marksman in European football.

Messi scored Barcelona’s second goal in a 3-0 home win over Eibar to reach 17 goals for the season thus far, equating to 34 points in the latest standings. Last season his Spanish league tally of 34 goals earned him the award for a record fifth time.

Lionel Messi . . . on celebrating his five Golden Boots

Previous leader was Brazilian Ellinton Antonio Costa Morais. The 28-year-old from Bauru, known as Liliu, scored 31 goals for Nõmme Kalju of Estonia in a ranking still largely dominated by the leading goalscorers in the completed 2018 domestic tournaments.

He remains second for the time being but on 14 goals (28 points) and catching up fast are Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) and Barcelona’s Luis Suarez.

Early start

Messi scored his first LaLiga goal for Barcelona on May 1 in 2005 against Albacete when he was just 17. His 400 goals have included 31 hat-tricks and 83 doubles and came in 435 matches.

Argentina’s World Cup captain, in the all-time Spanish standings, leads Cristiano Ronaldo (311 goals for Real Madrid) and Telmo Zarra (251 for Athletic Bilbao).

He is the first player to score 400 times in any of Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues and might yet overtake Pepe Bican’s record of 500 goals in the Austrian and Czech leagues.

The Golden Shoe is based on a ranking computed according to UEFA’s July rankings. Thus marksmen from among the top five nations  benefit from a multiple of 2.0, the next batch 1.5 and the remainder 1.0.

Last year France replaced Portugal in the top five meaning the value of goals in Ligue 1 rose to 2.0 while the valuation for for players from Benfica, Sporting and Porto etc was downgraded to 1.5. Goals in the countries ranked on down from 23 stand at face value.

As in previous years the Golden Shoe does not consider goals in play-off competitions.

Golden Shoe standings  

(Ranking multiplication based on UEFA coefficient status) 

1. Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) 17 x 2 = 34

2. Ellenton ‘Liliu’ (Nõmme Kalju FC) 31 x 1 = 31
3. Zakaria Beglarishvili (FC Flora Tallinn) 30 x 1 = 30
Mbaye Diagne (Kasimpasa SK) 20 x 1,5 = 30
‘Paulinho’ de Oliveira (BK Häcken) 20 x 1,5 = 30
6. Patrick Hoban (FC Dundalk) 29 x 1 = 29
7. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal) 14 x 2 = 28
Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) 14 x 2 = 28
Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain) 14 x 2 = 28
Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) 14 x 2 = 28
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC) 14 x 2 = 28
Luis Suárez (FC Barcelona) 14 x 2 = 28
13. Roman Debelko (FC Levadia Tallinn) 27 x 1 = 27
Linus Hallenius (GIF Sundsvall) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Nikolai Komlichenko (FK Mladá Boleslav) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Robert Skov (FC København) 18 x 1,5 = 27
17. Nicolas Pépé (Lille OSC) 13 x 2 = 26
Krzysztof Piatek (Genoa CFC) 13 x 2 = 26
19. Paco Alcácer (Borussia Dortmund) 12 x 2 = 24
Luka Jovic (SG Eintracht Frankfurt) 12 x 2 = 24
Fabio Quagliarella (UC Sampdoria) 12 x 2 = 24
Emiliano Sala (FC Nantes) 12 x 2 = 24
Cristhian Stuani (Girona FC) 12 x 2 = 24
24. Liviu Antal (FK Zalgiris Vilnius) 23 x 1 = 23
25. Mbwane Ally Samatta (KRC Genk) 15 x 1,5 = 22,5
26. Edinson Cavani (Paris Saint-Germain) 11 x 2 = 22
‘Neymar’ da Silva (Paris Saint-Germain) 11 x 2 = 22
Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund) 11 x 2 = 22
Florian Thauvin (Olympique Marseille) 11 x 2 = 22
Timo Werner (RasenBallsport Leipzig) 11 x 2 = 22
Budu Zivzivadze (FC Dinamo Tblisi) 22 x 1 = 22
32. Luuk de Jong (PSV Eindhoven) 14 x 1,5 = 21
João Klauss (HJK Helsinki) 21 x 1 = 21
Tristan Koskor (JK Tammeka Tartu) 21 x 1 = 21
Aluísio ‘Júnior Moraes’ (FC Shakhtar Donetsk) 14 x 1,5 = 21
36. Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero (Manchester City) 10 x 2 = 20
Iago Aspas Juncal (RC Celta de Vigo) 10 x 2 = 20
Giorgi Gabedava (FC Chikhura Sachkhere) 20 x 1 = 20
Eden Hazard (Chelsea FC) 10 x 2 = 20
Ciro Immobile (SS Lazio Roma) 10 x 2 = 20
Adrian Justinussen (HB Tórshavn) 20 x 1 = 20
Wahbi Khazri (AS Saint-Étienne) 10 x 2 = 20
Mykola Kovtalyuk (FC Dila Gori) 20 x 1 = 20
Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) 10 x 2 = 20
Arkadiusz Milik (SSC Napoli) 10 x 2 = 20
Duván Zapata (Atalanta Bergamo) 10 x 2 = 20
47. Nany Landry Dimata (RSC Anderlecht) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Nikola Djurdjic (Hammarby IF) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Romain Gall (GIF Sundsvall/Malmö FF) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Guillaume Hoarau (BSC Young Boys) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Ionut Mitrita (Universitatea Craiova 1948) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Markus Rosenberg (Malmö FF) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Francisco ‘Fran’ Sol (Willem II) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
George Tucudean (CFR Cluj 1907) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Kamil Wilczek (Brøndby IF) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
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* The Golden Shoe is administered, computed and formulated by the European Sports Media group whose members comprise: A Bola (Portugal), ElfVoetbal (Netherlands), Fanatik (Turkey), Foot Magazine (Belgium), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany), Gazzetta dello Sport (Italy), GoalNews/Sentragoal (Greece), Guerin Sportivo (Italy), Kicker (Germany), Marca (Spain), Nemzeti Sport (Hungary), SoFoot (France), Sport Express (Russia), Telegraaf/Telesport (Netherlands), Tipsbladet (Denmark), World Soccer (England). Affiliated members: Kick Off (South Africa), Titan Sport (China), Netease (China), SportalKorea (South-Korea).
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