KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Even his recent four-week absence has proved no hindrance to Robert Lewandowski in his march towards the ESM European Golden Shoe.

The Pole scored a hat-trick in the 6-0 weekend win over Borussia Monchengladbach which confirmed Bayern Munich as German champions for the ninth successive season, a sort of one-club super league all of their own.

Lewandowski has a total of 39 goals, one short of Gerd Muller’s 40-goal Bundesliga record in 1972 and 11 clear of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi who, with 50 goals in 2011-12, remains the competition’s record single-season leading scorer.

FIFA’s world player of the year is set fair to become only the third player since 2010 to interrupt Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s command of the award after Barcelona’s Luis Suarez in 2016 and Lazio’s Ciro Immobile last season.

Ronaldo has won the Golden Shoe four times and Messi on six occasions.
.
Tottenham’s Harry Kane is the leading Premier League marksman, joint eighth with 21 goals.

Early pacemaker Kasper Junker of Norway’s Bodo/Glimt has now slipped down to 14th place.

Junker scored 27 and was a long-time leader of the standings because the Golden Shoe is based on a ranking computed according to UEFA’s end-of-season rankings.

Thus marksmen from among the top five nations benefit from a multiple of 2.0, the next batch (places six to 22 ) a factor of 1.5 and the remainder 1.0.

Scandinavian leagues which traditionally play to a calendar-year schedule always provide the initial leaders before being overtaken in due course by the superstars of western Europe.

As in other years the rankings does not include play-offs which means that the leagues in countries such as Cyprus, Austria and Greece are already finished for the ESM Golden Shoe ranking.

Golden Shoe standings

(Ranking multiplication based on UEFA coefficient status)

1. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) 39 x 2 = 78

2. Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) 28 x 2 = 56
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) 27 x 2 = 54
4. Erling Braut Haaland (Borussia Dortmund) 25 x 2 = 50
— Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain) 25 x 2 = 50
— André Miguel Silva (Eintracht Frankfurt) 25 x 2 = 50
7. Paul Ebere Onuachu (KRC Genk) 29 x 1,5 = 43,5
8. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) 21 x 2 = 42
— ‘Gerard’ Moreno Balagueró (Villarreal CF) 21 x 2 = 42
— Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) 21 x 2 = 42
— Romelu Lukaku (Internazionale Milano) 21 x 2 = 42
— Luis Muriel Fruto (Atalanta Bergamo) 21 x 2 = 42
— Dusan Vlahovic (ACF Fiorentina) 21 x 2 = 42
14. Kasper Junker (FK Bodø/Glimt) 27 x 1,5 = 40,5
15. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC) 20 x 2 = 40
Wout Weghorst (VfL Wolfsburg) 20 x 2 = 40
17. Memphis Depay (Olympique Lyonnais) 19 x 2 = 38
Ciro Immobile (SS Lazio Roma) 19 x 2 = 38
Simeon ‘Simy’ Nwankwo (FC Crotone) 19 x 2 = 38
Luis Alberto Suárez (Atlético Madrid) 19 x 2 = 38
Wissam Ben Yedder (AS Monaco) 19 x 2 = 38
22. Giorgos Giakoumakis (VVV-Venlo) 25 x 1,5 = 37,5
Milan Makarić (FK Radnik Surdulica) 25 x 1,5 = 37,5
Amahl Pellegrino (Kristiansund BK) 25 x 1,5 = 37,5
25. Andrej Kramaric (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim) 18 x 2 = 36
26. Youssef En-Nesyri (Sevilla FC) 17 x 2 = 34
Bruno Miguel Borges Fernandes (Manchester United) 17 x 2 = 34
Lorenzo Insigne (SSC Napoli Calcio) 17 x 2 = 34
Heung-Min Son (Tottenham Hotspur) 17 x 2 = 34
30. Aaron Boupendza (Hatayspor Kulübü) 22 x 1,5 = 33
31. Domenico Berardi (US Sassuolo Calcio) 16 x 2 = 32
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton FC) 16 x 2 = 32
Lautaro Martínez (Internazionale Milano) 16 x 2 = 32
‘João Pedro’ Galvão (Cagliari Calcio) 16 x 2 = 32
Kevin Volland (AS Monaco) 16 x 2 = 32
36. Thomas Henry (Oud-Heverlee Leuven) 21 x 1,5 = 31,5
Ramón Nazareno Miérez (NK Osijek) 21 x 1,5 = 31,5
38. Patrick Bamford (Leeds United) 15 x 2 = 30
Gianni Bruno (SV Zulte Waregem) 20 x 1,5 = 30
Patson Daka (Red Bull Salzburg) 20 x 1,5 = 30
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (AC Milan) 15 x 2 = 30
Sasa Kalajdzic (VfB Stuttgart) 15 x 2 = 30
Gaëtan Laborde (Montpellier Hérault SC) 15 x 2 = 30
Burak Yilmaz (Lille OSC) 15 x 2 = 30
45. Youssef El-Arabi (Olympiakos Piraeus) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
Sardar Azmoun (FC Zenit Sint-Petersburg) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
Cyle Larin (Besiktas JK) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
Philip Zinckernagel (FK Bodø/Glimt) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
49. Ludovic Ajorque (Racing Strasbourg Alsace) 14 x 2 = 28
Andy Delort (Montpellier Hérault SC) 14 x 2 = 28
Boulaye Dia (Stade de Reims) 14 x 2 = 28
Alexander Isak (Real Sociedad de Fútbol) 14 x 2 = 28
Terem Moffi (FC Lorient) 14 x 2 = 28
Duván Zapata (Atalanta Bergamo) 14 x 2 = 28
55. Takumo Asano (FK Partizan Beograd) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Mame Biram Diouf (Hatayspor Kulübü) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Pedro António Pereira Gonçalves ‘Pote’ (Sporting CP) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Zachary Hadji (CS Fola Esch) 27 x 1 = 27
Donyell Malen (PSV Eindhoven) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Arthur Mendonça Cabral (FC Basel) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Jean-Pierre Nsame (BSC Young Boys) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Christoffer Nyman (IFK Norrköping) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Haris Seferovic (SL Benfica) 18 x 1,5 = 27
64. Iago Aspas Juncal (RC Celta de Vigo) 13 x 2 = 26
Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal) 13 x 2 = 26
Rafael ‘Rafa Mir’ Vicente (SD Huesca) 13 x 2 = 26
José Luis Morales (Levante UD) 13 x 2 = 26
Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) 13 x 2 = 26
Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa FC) 13 x 2 = 26

** 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).

############