European Golden Shoe

European Golden Shoe 2020/21: Lewandowski wins with Messi & Ronaldo on podium

The Bayern striker ends up at the top in the final standings of Europe's best goalscorers this season, leaving a star-studded chasing pack well adrift.

 
9:24am on Monday 24th May 2021
By
Martin Macdonald

Robert Lewandowski has seen off the challenge of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to finish at the top of the European Golden Shoe rankings for 2020/21.

It was a memorable weekend for leader Lewandowski, who surpassed the Bundesliga record set by Gerd Muller in 1971/72 by reaching 41 goals for the season.

Lewandowski equalled the 40-goal milestone in Bayern's 2-2 draw at Freiburg a week after he scored a hat-trick as his side celebrated their latest Bundesliga title in style with a 6-0 win over Gladbach.

He then got the goal he needed to take the record outright in the final minute of a 5-2 win over Augsburg on Saturday.

Lewandowski held a commanding position in the standings for most of the campaign and ends with an astonishing 41 league goals from 29 appearances, giving him 82 Golden Shoe points.

Messi and Ronaldo recently broke what was a five-way tie for second place and it is the Barcelona forward who has ultimately taken the spot behind Lewandowski.

Messi reached 30 goals, giving him 60 points in the standings for the most goals in Europe, with strikes against Levante and Celta even as Barcelona failed to win both of those contests as their title hopes slipped away. He held on to second place despite not playing against Eibar on Saturday.

The Argentina star had seven goals in his last seven matches. His 30 goals came from just 35 appearances in the Primera Division.

READ MORE: Champions League all-time top scorers

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Juventus forward Ronaldo ends up one goal behind his great rival.

Ronaldo had recently scored against Sassuolo and Inter to end a quiet run by his high standards that had seen him only score twice in five Serie A matches.

With Juventus needing to beat Bologna and hope other results went their way to secure a top-four finish on Sunday, Ronaldo was surprisingly left out by Andrea Pirlo, but he still finishes third in the Golden Shoe rankings and is the top scorer in Serie A, his 29 goals coming from 33 games.

There has also been movement in a close battle behind Messi and Ronaldo, with Andre Silva up to 28, just ahead of Kylian Mbappe (27) and Erling Haaland (27).

Haaland had been plummeting down the Golden Shoe charts, having not netted in seven matches for club or country prior to his two strikes against Werder Bremen on April 18 that saw him return to form.

The Dortmund sensation followed that up with another double at Wolfsburg last month and finished strongly with two more against Bayer Leverkusen to end up with an impressive 27 league goals in 28 games (27 starts).

READ MORE: Who has the most assists in Europe?

One of the other top stars of his generation, Mbappe, also has 54 points in the European Golden Shoe standings.

PSG star Mbappe ends the league season on electric goalscoring form, scoring 15 times in his last 15 Ligue 1 appearances, including two in a 3-1 win at Metz in April and strikes against Stade de Reims and Brest this month.

He may have been challenging Messi and Ronaldo were it not for a recent injury that forced him to miss multiple matches, while Haaland was also ruled out of a key match against RB Leipzig for Dortmund.

Frankfurt’s Silva has been consistently scoring well in the European Golden Shoe this year and he claims fourth place ahead of Mbappe and Haaland.

Silva wrapped up a fine campaign by scoring in the 3-1 win over Freiburg, having previously netted twice as his side were involved in a typically entertaining contest in losing 4-3 at Schalke.

Those six players are the only stars to surpass 25 goals.

Romelu Lukaku moved up to 48 points after welcome goals against Roma, Juventus and Udinese. Prior to that, he had gone cold in front of goal, five Serie A games without scoring.

In-form Gerard Moreno surged up to 23 goals over the final weeks of the campaign, with the Villarreal striker moving ahead of a host of top stars.

Moreno ends up level with the top Premier League representative Harry Kane, who netted against Leicester City on Sunday to take the Golden Boot in England after a long battle with Mohamed Salah.

READ MORE: Which team has had the most penalties in Europe this season?

Real Madrid veteran Karim Benzema is tied with Kane and Moreno. He scored against Granada and Villarreal this month to finish his individual campaign on a high.

Paul Onuachu of Genk has 29 goals and would be up at third spot in the standings – rather than his current position outside the top 10 - if he played in a major league with a better weighting for points.

READ MORE: Premier League top scorers - who will win the Golden Boot?

The supreme Lewandowski is the winner of the European Golden Shoe race even though he had to overcome missing a month through injury towards the end of the campaign when he suffered a problem while playing with Poland.

With his lead on the star-studded chasing pack finishing up at a huge 22 points, Bayern star Lewandowski wins his first Golden Shoe trophy, an outcome that rarely looked in doubt.

Lewandowski has become the first Bundesliga winner since 1972.

He has also produced the highest winning goal total for the last six seasons.

2020/21 EUROPEAN GOLDEN SHOE STANDINGS

2020/21 European Golden Shoe

PlayerTeamGoalsPoints
Robert LewandowskiBayern4182
Lionel MessiBarcelona3060
Cristiano RonaldoJuventus2958
Andre SilvaFrankfurt2856
Kylian MbappePSG2754
Erling HaalandDortmund2754
Romelu LukakuInter2448
Gerard MorenoVillarreal2346
Harry KaneTottenham2346
Karim BenzemaReal Madrid2346
Mohamed SalahLiverpool2244
Luis MurielAtalanta2244
Paul OnuachuGenk2943.5
Luis SuarezAtletico Madrid2142
Dusan VlahovicFiorentina2142
Patson DakaSalzburg2740.5
Wout WeghorstWolfsburg2040
SimyCrotone2040
Ciro ImmobileLazio2040
Wissam Ben YedderSevilla2040
Memphis DepayLyon2040
Andrej KramarićHoffenheim2040
Georgios GiakoumakisVenlo2639
Lorenzo InsigneNapoli1938

2020/21 EUROPEAN GOLDEN SHOE (Summer Leagues)

2020 European Golden Shoe

PlayerTeamGoalsPoints
Kasper JunkerBomo/Glimt2740.5
Amahl PellegrinoKristiansund2537.5
Philip ZinckernagelBodo/Glimt1928.5
Christoffer NymanNorrköping1827
Rauno SappinenFlora Tallinn2626
Veton BerishaViking1624
Astrit SelmaniVerbergs1522.5
Mushaga BakengaOdds BK1522.5
Moses OgbuMjallby1421
Anders ChristiansenMalmo1319.5
Leke JamesMolde1219.5
Maksim SkavyshBATE Borisov1919

Who are the previous European Golden Shoe winners?

European Golden Shoe winners

SeasonPlayerTeamGoals
2019/20Ciro ImmobileLazio36
2018/19Lionel MessiBarcelona36
2017/18Lionel MessiBarcelona34
2016/17Lionel MessiBarcelona37
2015/16Luis SuarezBarcelona40
2014/15Cristiano RonaldoReal Madrid48
2013/14Suarez/RonaldoLiverpool/Real Madrid31
2012/13Lionel MessiBarcelona46
2011/12Lionel MessiBarcelona50
2010/11Cristiano RonaldoReal Madrid40

Lionel Messi has won the most European Golden Shoe titles.

The Barcelona forward has triumphed on six occasions, most recently in 2018/19.

Cristiano Ronaldo is his closest challenger with four career wins, though the Juventus forward has not come out on top since 2014/15 when he was at Real Madrid.

Nine players have two awards apiece, including Luis Suarez and Thierry Henry.

Messi holds the record for most goals and points in a season as well. He remarkably scored 50 goals in 2011/12, earning himself 100 points.

Ronaldo has come closest to breaking that, scoring 48 goals for 96 points when he last won the crown six years ago.

Argentina forward Messi is the only player in European Golden Shoe history to win the title three years in a row, doing so from 2016 until 2019.

Ronaldo, though, is one of only four players to have won the title with different clubs. The others are Luis Suarez, Diego Forlan and Mario Jardel.

Ciro Immobile won the 2019/20 European Golden Shoe, scoring 36 goals for Lazio in a tremendous Serie A season.

It was his first title, with the striker becoming the first Serie A player to have the most goals in Europe since Francesco Totti triumphed for Lazio's rivals Roma in 2006/07.

Ligue 1 has not produced a winner since Josip Skoblar in 1971.

What are the European Golden Shoe rules and weightings?

Only league goals are eligible for the European Golden Shoe, with each strike earning points in a weighted system depending on the quality of league.

The five elite leagues - Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 - all carry a weighting of 2, meaning that a player will be awarded two points for every goal they score in these competitions.

For the leagues ranked sixth to 21 in Uefa's coefficients rankings - which includes the top-flights in Portugal, Netherlands and Russia - goals scored are given a weighting of 1.5, and goals scored in a league outwith the top 21 are given a weighting of 1.

That was not always the case in the European Golden Shoe. From 1968 until 1991, the award simply went to the highest goalscorer on the continent, regardless of the strength of league.

Awards were not initially handed out between 1991 until 1996, when the new system came into force. Since then, only two players playing outside what were the five highest-ranked leagues at the time have ever won the Golden Shoe - Henrik Larsson (2000/01) and Mario Jardel (2001/02).

The Golden Shoe has been tied in the past, most recently when Suarez and Ronaldo shared the honour in 2013/14. Going forward, though, the award will be given to the player who has played the fewest minutes if two of them end up on the same number of points.

This page covers the 2020/21 European Golden Shoe race. If you want to see the final standings for the 2019/20 European Golden Shoe, follow this link.

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