KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Nine days more and Robert Lewandowski will be confirmed as winner of the ESM European Golden Shoe for 2020-21.

Even his recent four-week absence has proved no hindrance. The Pole scored his 40th goal of the campaign in the weekend’s 2-2 draw at Freiburg to equal the great Gerd Muller’s Bundesliga single-season record.

Lewandowski is 10 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.

The final Golden Shoe ranking will be compiled on May 27.

Early pacemaker Kasper Junker of Norway’s Bodo/Glimt has now slipped down to 15th 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) 40 x 2 = 80

2. Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) 30 x 2 = 60

3. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) 29 x 2 = 58

4. André Miguel Silva (Eintracht Frankfurt) 27 x 2 = 54
5. Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain) 26 x 2 = 52
6. Erling Braut Haaland (Borussia Dortmund) 25 x 2 = 50
7. ‘Gerard’ Moreno Balagueró (Villarreal CF) 23 x 2 = 46
Romelu Lukaku (Internazionale Milano) 23 x 2 = 46
9. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) 22 x 2 = 44
Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) 22 x 2 = 44
Luis Muriel Fruto (Atalanta Bergamo) 22 x 2 = 44
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC) 22 x 2 = 44
13. Paul Ebere Onuachu (KRC Genk) 29 x 1,5 = 43,5
14. Dusan Vlahovic (ACF Fiorentina) 21 x 2 = 42
15. Kasper Junker (FK Bodø/Glimt) 27 x 1,5 = 40,5
16. Memphis Depay (Olympique Lyonnais) 20 x 2 = 40
Ciro Immobile (SS Lazio Roma) 20 x 2 = 40
Simeon ‘Simy’ Nwankwo (FC Crotone) 20 x 2 = 40
Luis Alberto Suárez (Atlético Madrid) 20 x 2 = 40
Wout Weghorst (VfL Wolfsburg) 20 x 2 = 40
Wissam Ben Yedder (AS Monaco) 20 x 2 = 40
22. Giorgos Giakoumakis (VVV-Venlo) 26 x 1,5 = 39
23. Lorenzo Insigne (SSC Napoli Calcio) 19 x 2 = 38
Andrej Kramaric (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim) 19 x 2 = 38
25. Milan Makarić (FK Radnik Surdulica) 25 x 1,5 = 37,5
Amahl Pellegrino (Kristiansund BK) 25 x 1,5 = 37,5
27. Youssef En-Nesyri (Sevilla FC) 18 x 2 = 36
Bruno Miguel Borges Fernandes (Manchester United) 18 x 2 = 36
29. Heung-Min Son (Tottenham Hotspur) 17 x 2 = 34
30. Aaron Boupendza (Hatayspor Kulübü) 22 x 1,5 = 33
Ramón Nazareno Miérez (NK Osijek) 22 x 1,5 = 33
32. Ludovic Ajorque (Racing Strasbourg Alsace) 16 x 2 = 32
Domenico Berardi (US Sassuolo Calcio) 16 x 2 = 32
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton FC) 16 x 2 = 32
Alexander Isak (Real Sociedad de Fútbol) 16 x 2 = 32
Sasa Kalajdzic (VfB Stuttgart) 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
40. Thomas Henry (Oud-Heverlee Leuven) 21 x 1,5 = 31,5
41. 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
Artem Dzyuba (FC Zenit Sint-Petersburg) 20 x 1,5 = 30
Pedro António Pereira Gonçalves ‘Pote’ (Sporting CP) 20 x 1,5 = 30
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (AC Milan) 15 x 2 = 30
Gaëtan Laborde (Montpellier Hérault SC) 15 x 2 = 30
Haris Seferovic (SL Benfica) 20 x 1,5 = 30
Burak Yilmaz (Lille OSC) 15 x 2 = 30
Duván Zapata (Atalanta Bergamo) 15 x 2 = 30
51. Zachary Hadji (CS Fola Esch) 29 x 1 = 29
52. Youssef El-Arabi (Olympiakos Piraeus) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
Sardar Azmoun (FC Zenit Sint-Petersburg) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
Mame Biram Diouf (Hatayspor Kulübü) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
Cyle Larin (Besiktas JK) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
Donyell Malen (PSV Eindhoven) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
Jean-Pierre Nsame (BSC Young Boys) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
Philip Zinckernagel (FK Bodø/Glimt) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
59. Andy Delort (Montpellier Hérault SC) 14 x 2 = 28
Boulaye Dia (Stade de Reims) 14 x 2 = 28
Terem Moffi (FC Lorient) 14 x 2 = 28
José Luis Morales (Levante UD) 14 x 2 = 28
63. Takumo Asano (FK Partizan Beograd) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Steven Berghuis (Feyenoord Rotterdam) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Arthur Mendonça Cabral (FC Basel) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Christoffer Nyman (IFK Norrköping) 18 x 1,5 = 27
67. Iago Aspas Juncal (RC Celta de Vigo) 13 x 2 = 26
Andrea Belotti (Torino FC) 13 x 2 = 26
Bioty Moise Kean (Paris Saint-Germain) 13 x 2 = 26
Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal) 13 x 2 = 26
Rafael ‘Rafa Mir’ Vicente (SD Huesca) 13 x 2 = 26
Lars Stindl (Borussia Mönchengladbach) 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).

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