KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Lillestrom’s Thomas Lehne Olsen and Molde’s Ohi Omoijuanfo in Norway lead the standings in the ESM Golden Shoe awarded to European league football’s leading marksman.

The two Norwegians should enjoy the limelight while they can. It will not last long as the star marksmen of the major leagues catch up and then overtake.

Robert Lewandowski won the prize last season with German champions Bayern Munich when the Pole, hailed as FIFA world player of the year, totalled 41 goals in the Bundesliga to finish 11 clear of Barcelona’s Leo Messi and 12 ahead of third-placed Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus.

Lewandowski was only the third player since 2010 to interrupt Messi and Ronaldo’s command of the award after Barcelona’s Luis Suarez in 2016 and Lazio’s Ciro Immobile last season.

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.

Golden Shoe standings 

(Ranking multiplication based on UEFA coefficient status)

1. Thomas Lehne Olsen (Lillestrøm SK) 26 x 1,5 = 39
— Ohi Omoijuanfo (Molde FK) 26 x 1,5 = 39
3. Veton Berisha (Viking FK Stavanger, 5p) 22 x 1,5 = 33
4. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) 16 x 2 = 32
5. Patrik Schick (Bayer Leverkusen) 14 x 2 = 28
6. Mikkel Dahl (Havnar Bóltfelag) 27 x 1 = 27
Ricardo Jorge Gomes (FK Partizan Beograd) 18 x 1,5 = 27
8. Ciro Immobile (SS Lazio Roma) 13 x 2 = 26
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC) 13 x 2 = 26
Dusan Vlahovic (AFC Fiorentina) 13 x 2 = 26
11. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) 12 x 2 = 24
Deniz Undav (Union Saint-Gilloise) 16 x 1,5 = 24
13. Michael Frey (Royal Antwerp FC) 15 x 1,5 = 22,5
14. Jonathan David (Lille OSC) 11 x 2 = 22
Erling Braut Haaland (Borussia Dortmund) 11 x 2 = 22
Giovanni Simeone (Hellas Verona) 11 x 2 = 22
17. Eirik Botheim (Bodø/Glimt) 14 x 1,5 = 21
Arthur Cabral Mendonça (FC Basel) 14 x 1,5 = 21
Georgie Kelly (Bohemian FC Dublin) 21 x 1 = 21
20. Henri Anier (Paide Linnameeskond) 20 x 1 = 20
‘Vinícius Júnior’ José Paixão de Oliveira (Real Madrid) 10 x 2 = 20
22. Gamid Agalarov (FC Ufa) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Artem Dovbyk (SK Dnipro-1) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
Josip Drmic (HBK Rijeka) 13 x 1,5 = 19,5
25. Zakaria Beglarishvili (FCI Levadia Tallinn) 19 x 1 = 19
Dembo Darboe (FC Shakhtyor Soligorsk) 19 x 1 = 19
Rauno Sappinen (Flora Tallinn) 19 x 1 = 19
28. Ludovic Ajorque (Racing Strasbourg Alsace) 9 x 2 = 18
Taiwo Awoniyi (1. FC Union Berlin) 9 x 2 = 18
Juan Miguel Jiménez López ‘Juanmi’ (Real Betis Sevilla) 9 x 2 = 18
Páll Klettskarð (KÍ) 18 x 1 = 18
Gaëtan Laborde (Stade Rennais) 9 x 2 = 18
Marko Livaja (HNK Hajduk Split) 12 x 1,5 = 18
‘João Pedro’ Geraldino dos Santos Galvão (Cagliari Calcio) 9 x 2 = 18
Andrey Solovey (FC Gomel) 18 x 1 = 18
Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) 9 x 2 = 18
Wissam Ben Yedder (AS Monaco) 9 x 2 = 18
Duván Zapata (Atalanta Bergamo) 9 x 2 = 18
39. Samuel Adegbenro (IFK Norrköping) 17 x 1 = 17
Nemanja Bilbija (HSK Zrinjski Mostar) 17 x 1 = 17
Martin Tomasov (Astana) 17 x 1 = 17
Hugo Vidémont (FK Zalgiris Vilnius) 17 x 1 = 17

** 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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