LONDON: Cristiano Ronaldo – not for the first time – has Lionel Messi in his sights.

The 34-year-old Portuguese superstar scored twice in Juventus’ 3-3 Serie A with Parma at the weekend to move on to 17 goals and claim third place in the rankings for the ESM Golden Shoe which crowns European football’s leading league marksman.

Ronaldo has scored six times in his last five Serie A outings.

Messi also scored twice at the weekend, in Barcelona’s 2-2 home draw with Valencia, and leads the standings with 21 LaLiga goals. Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe remains in second place on 18 goals after failing to find the net in the French champions’ 2-1 defeat at Lyon.

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.

Cristiano Ronaldo . . . two goals against Parma

Golden Shoe standings  

(Ranking multiplication based on UEFA coefficient status) 

1. Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) 21 x 2 = 42
2. Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain) 18 x 2 = 36
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) 17 x 2 = 34
4. Edinson Cavani (Paris Saint-Germain) 16 x 2 = 32
— Nicolas Pépé (Lille OSC) 16 x 2 = 32
— Fabio Quagliarella (UC Sampdoria) 16 x 2 = 32
— Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC) 16 x 2 = 32
8. Ellenton ‘Liliu’ (Nõmme Kalju FC) 31 x 1 = 31
9. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal) 15 x 2 = 30
Zakaria Beglarishvili (FC Flora Tallinn) 30 x 1 = 30
Mbaye Diagne (Kasimpasa SK/Galatasaray SK) 20 x 1,5 = 30
‘Paulinho’ de Oliveira (BK Häcken) 20 x 1,5 = 30
Luis Suárez (FC Barcelona) 15 x 2 = 30
Duván Zapata (Atalanta Bergamo) 15 x 2 = 30
15. Patrick Hoban (FC Dundalk) 29 x 1 = 29
16. Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero (Manchester City) 14 x 2 = 28
Luka Jovic (SG Eintracht Frankfurt) 14 x 2 = 28
Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) 14 x 2 = 28
Krzysztof Piatek (Genoa CFC/AC Milan) 14 x 2 = 28
20. Roman Debelko (FC Levadia Tallinn) 27 x 1 = 27
Linus Hallenius (GIF Sundsvall) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Luuk de Jong (PSV Eindhoven) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Nikolai Komlichenko (FK Mladá Boleslav) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Robert Skov (FC København) 18 x 1,5 = 27
25. ‘Neymar’ da Silva (Paris Saint-Germain) 13 x 2 = 26
Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund) 13 x 2 = 26
27. Mbwane Ally Samatta (KRC Genk) 17 x 1,5 = 25,5
28. Paco Alcácer (Borussia Dortmund) 12 x 2 = 24
Eden Hazard (Chelsea FC) 12 x 2 = 24
Wahbi Khazri (AS Saint-Étienne) 12 x 2 = 24
Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) 12 x 2 = 24
Arkadiusz Milik (SSC Napoli) 12 x 2 = 24
Emiliano Sala (FC Nantes/Cardiff City) 12 x 2 = 24
Cristhian Stuani (Girona FC) 12 x 2 = 24
35. Liviu Antal (FK Zalgiris Vilnius) 23 x 1 = 23
36. Francesco Caputo (Empoli FC) 11 x 2 = 22
Sébastien Haller (SG Eintracht Frankfurt) 11 x 2 = 22
Ciro Immobile (SS Lazio Roma) 11 x 2 = 22
Sadio Mané (Liverpool FC) 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
43. Hamdi Harbaoui (SV Zulte Waregem) 14 x 1,5 = 21
João Klauss (HJK Helsinki) 21 x 1 = 21
Tristan Koskor (JK Tammeka Tartu) 21 x 1 = 21
Efthymios Koulouris (Atromitos FC) 14 x 1,5 = 21
Aluísio ‘Júnior Moraes’ (FC Shakhtar Donetsk) 14 x 1,5 = 21
George Tucudean (CFR Cluj 1907) 14 x 1,5 = 21
49. Iago Aspas Juncal (RC Celta de Vigo) 10 x 2 = 20
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) 10 x 2 = 20
Alfred Finnbogason (FC Augsburg) 10 x 2 = 20
Giorgi Gabedava (FC Chikhura Sachkhere) 20 x 1 = 20
Antoine Griezmann (Atlético de Madrid) 10 x 2 = 20
Adrian Justinussen (HB Tórshavn) 20 x 1 = 20
Mykola Kovtalyuk (FC Dila Gori) 20 x 1 = 20
Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham FC) 10 x 2 = 20
Glenn Murray (Brighton & Hove Albion) 10 x 2 = 20
Alassane Pléa (Borussia Mönchengladbach) 10 x 2 = 20
Yussuf Poulsen (RasenBallsport Leipzig) 10 x 2 = 20
‘Richarlison’ de Andrade (Everton FC) 10 x 2 = 20
Heung-Min Son (Tottenham Hotspur) 10 x 2 = 20
Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) 10 x 2 = 20
Callum Wilson (AFC Bournemouth) 10 x 2 = 20
Wissam Ben Yedder (Sevilla FC) 10 x 2 = 20
65. 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
Ezequiel Ponce (AEK Athens FC) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Markus Rosenberg (Malmö FF) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Francisco ‘Fran’ Sol (Willem II/Dynamo Kiev) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Dyego Wilverson Sousa (Sporting Braga) 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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