Neither of the two attackers found the net at the weekend, while Diego Costa scored once to leapfrog Lionel Messi again
Liverpool attacker Luis Suarez continues to lead the race for the European Golden Shoe with a one-goal advantage over Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, while Atletico Madrid ace Diego Costa has returned to the top three at the expense of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.
Suarez did not find the net in Liverpool’s 3-2 win over Manchester City at the weekend, whereas Ronaldo did not feature in Madrid’s victory against Almeria due to injury.
Costa missed a penalty for Atletico against Getafe, but made amends for his mistake in the closing stages of the game with his 26th goal of the season.
Meanwhile, there were no goals for Messi as Barcelona recorded a shock defeat away against Granada.
Iceland international Alfred Finnbogason found the net once in Heerenveen’s win over Go Ahead Eagles and has made his way into the top five alongside Jonatan Soriano.
Finally, Torino striker Ciro Immobile climbed to eighth place following his late goal in the hard-fought 2-1 win over Genoa.
History & How It Works
Players such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Diego Forlan have won the European Golden Shoe in the past few seasons, with the Argentina international as the latest winner of the award following his 46 goals in 2012-13.
Other noteworthy winners include the likes of Francesco Totti, Luca Toni, Ronaldo, Marco van Basten, Eusebio and Gerd Muller.
The weightings are determined by the league’s ranking on the Uefa coefficients, which in turn depend on the results of each league’s clubs in European competition over the previous five seasons. Goals scored in the top five leagues according to the Uefa coefficients are multiplied by a factor of two, and goals scored in the leagues ranked six to 21 are multiplied by 1.5. Goals in all other leagues are worth one single point.
This measure has prevented players from so-called weaker leagues from winning the European Golden Shoe, since a goal scored in, for example, Armenia, Estonia or Azerbaijan, carries less weight than a goal scored in Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga or the Premier League.