KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- One of the finest hat-tricks in the career of even the phenomenal Lionel Messi has fired him further clear in pursuit of a record-extending sixth ESM European Golden Shoe.

Messi completed his 51st career hat-trick in Barcelona’s 4-1 weekend win over Betis in Sevilla with a remarkable angled lob which prompted even home fans to give him a standing ovation and chant his name. The Argentinian said later that he had never received such a tribute from opposing supporters.

Barcelona’s victory gave the Spanish champions a commanding 10-point lead in LaLiga over Atletico Madrid while Messi added another milestone to his cv by surpassing Xavi Hernández with a club record 477th win.

Messi . . . five so far, one more in sight

Messi totals 29 league goals for the season, three more than Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe and eight more than third-placed Fabio Quagliarella of Sampdoria Genoa.

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.

French step up

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) 29 x 2 = 58

2. Kylian Mbappé (Paris S-G) 26 x 2 = 52
3. Fabio Quagliarella (UC Sampdoria) 21 x 2 = 42
4. Krzysztof Piatek (Genoa CFC/AC Milan) 19 x 2 = 38
— Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) 19 x 2 = 38
6. Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero (Manchester City) 18 x 2 = 36
— Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) 18 x 2 = 36
— Luis Suárez (FC Barcelona) 18 x 2 = 36
9. Mbaye Diagne (Kasimpasa SK/Galatasaray SK) 23 x 1,5 = 34,5
— Robert Skov (FC København) 23 x 1,5 = 34,5
11. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal) 17 x 2 = 34
Edinson Cavani (Paris Saint-Germain) 17 x 2 = 34
Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) 17 x 2 = 34
Sadio Mané (Liverpool FC) 17 x 2 = 34
Nicolas Pépé (Lille OSC) 17 x 2 = 34
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC) 17 x 2 = 34
Duván Zapata (Atalanta Bergamo) 17 x 2 = 34
18. Cristhian Stuani (Girona FC) 16 x 2 = 32
Wissam Ben Yedder (Sevilla FC) 16 x 2 = 32
20. Luuk de Jong (PSV Eindhoven) 21 x 1,5 = 31,5
21. Ellenton ‘Liliu’ (Nõmme Kalju FC) 31 x 1 = 31
22. Zakaria Beglarishvili (FC Flora Tallinn) 30 x 1 = 30
Luka Jovic (SG Eintracht Frankfurt) 15 x 2 = 30
Nikolai Komlichenko (FK Mladá Boleslav) 20 x 1,5 = 30
Arkadiusz Milik (SSC Napoli) 15 x 2 = 30
‘Paulinho’ de Oliveira (BK Häcken) 20 x 1,5 = 30
Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund) 15 x 2 = 30
Mbwane Ally Samatta (KRC Genk) 20 x 1,5 = 30
Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) 15 x 2 = 30
30. Patrick Hoban (FC Dundalk) 29 x 1 = 29
31. Andreas Skov Olsen (FC Nordsjaelland) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
Dusan Tadic (AFC Ajax) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
33. Paco Alcácer (Borussia Dortmund) 14 x 2 = 28
Sébastien Haller (SG Eintracht Frankfurt) 14 x 2 = 28
35. Roman Debelko (FC Levadia Tallinn) 27 x 1 = 27
Linus Hallenius (GIF Sundsvall) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Hamdi Harbaoui (SV Zulte Waregem) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Kamil Wilczek (Brøndby IF) 18 x 1,5 = 27
39. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) 13 x 2 = 26
Francesco Caputo (Empoli FC) 13 x 2 = 26
Eden Hazard (Chelsea FC) 13 x 2 = 26
Ciro Immobile (SS Lazio Roma) 13 x 2 = 26
Andrej Kramarić (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim) 13 x 2 = 26
Jaime Mata Arnaiz (Getafe CF) 13 x 2 = 26
‘Neymar’ da Silva (Paris Saint-Germain) 13 x 2 = 26
Florian Thauvin (Olympique Marseille) 13 x 2 = 26
47. Igor Angulo Albóniga (Górnik Zabrze) 17 x 1,5 = 25,5
48. ‘Charles’ Dias de Oliveira (SD Eibar) 12 x 2 = 24
Radamel Falcao (AS Monaco) 12 x 2 = 24
Antoine Griezmann (Atlético de Madrid) 12 x 2 = 24
Raúl Jiménez Rodríguez (Wolverhampton Wanderers) 12 x 2 = 24
Wahbi Khazri (AS Saint-Étienne) 12 x 2 = 24
Efthymios Koulouris (Atromitos FC) 16 x 1,5 = 24
Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal) 12 x 2 = 24
Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United) 12 x 2 = 24
Aluísio ‘Júnior Moraes’ (FC Shakhtar Donetsk) 16 x 1,5 = 24
Yussuf Poulsen (RasenBallsport Leipzig) 12 x 2 = 24
‘Richarlison’ de Andrade (Everton FC) 12 x 2 = 24
Emiliano Sala (FC Nantes/Cardiff City) 12 x 2 = 24
Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton FC) 12 x 2 = 24
George Tucudean (CFR Cluj 1907) 16 x 1,5 = 24
Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) 12 x 2 = 24
Wout Weghorst (VfL Wolfsburg) 12 x 2 = 24
Timo Werner (RasenBallsport Leipzig) 12 x 2 = 24

 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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