Top European Footballer – The Race for European Golden Boot Award

Topics: European Golden Shoe Award, Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, Gonzalo Higuain, Antonio Di Natale, Luis Suarez, Darren Bent, Carlos Tevez, Seydou Doumbia, David Villa

Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, Gonzalo Higuain, Luis Suarez, Antonio Di Natale, Darren Bent, Carlos Tevez, Seydou Doumbia, and David Villa. Doesn’t this list remind you of the top contenders for the European Golden Shoe Award? If the answer is yes, then you are just right.

The European Golden Boot LiveSoccerTV.com travels to Spain, England, Switzerland, Holland and Italy to discover some of Europe’s finest goal scorers.

A quick reminder – What is the European Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe is an award formerly known as the European Golden Boot. Many refer to it as the “UEFA Golden Boot” or the “UEFA Golden Shoe”. This award is given annually by the Union of European Football Associations to the overall top scorer of all the first division leagues in Europe.
Although the foundation of this award partly lies upon the idea of “being the top scorer” of a specific professional European football league, the high number of goals scored in a season isn’t the only criterion which makes a player eligible for this award.

Before 1996, football personalities from top leagues were complaining that their chances of competing for this honor were too slim, seeing that the difficulties of their matches were preventing them from scoring as many goals in a season as players from lower leagues. For that particular reason, European Sports Magazines changed the criteria which determined whether a player could qualify for the UEFA Golden Shoe or not.

A goal scored by a footballer in the top five leagues according to the UEFA coefficients list is now multiplied by two, while a goal scored in a league ranked from the 6th place to the 21st place is multiplied by 1.5. Players with high chances of winning the UEFA Golden Shoe are then those signed by professional football clubs from the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, the Italy Serie A, the German Bundesliga, and the French Ligue 1.

UEFA Golden Shoe Award – Top 10 Contenders

1. Lionel Messi – FC Barcelona

Lionel Messi - FC Barcelona, Spanish La Liga top scorer with 27 goals Barcelona star Lionel Messi currently tops the list with 27 goals in his bag. The reigning FIFA Player of the Year and the 2009 Ballon d’Or winner is also the present Spanish La Liga top scorer ahead of his rivals Gonzalo Higuain and David Villa who also come from the Primera División. Having his 27 goals multiplied by two, Messi currently has 54 points in the contest, but his race to triumph is yet to be finalized; as he is followed by hungry challengers just behind him.

The 22-year old winger can additionally boast of being La Liga’s assist leader along with his team mate Xavi Hernandez who joins him at the top of the rankings with 9 assists. With 28 appearances for Barcelona in La Liga this season including 24 games started, Messi nearly has a record of a goal per match, but still, one slip in his road to glory could destroy his fight for what can be his first European Golden Shoe award.

2. Wayne Rooney – Manchester United

Wayne Rooney - Manchester United, Premier League top scorer Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney is in superb shape this season with 26 goals in his name. Rooney is the top scorer in the Premier League, but an injury sustained against Bayern Munich late in March seems to slow down the pace of his race for the European Golden Shoe award.

Rooney has been Manchester United’s most active player this season, having 52 points in the contest as of April 14. The English prolific goal scorer has never played as a substitute for the Red Devils this season, and despite having 29 appearances in the starting line-up for his club, Rooney is looking forward to breaking the number of 30 in the Top Scorers chart.

The 24-year old forward has 3 assists in the league, but although his vision of becoming the new European Golden Shoe winner is near from reality, he still needs to work on his attitude. The Red Devil has already received 5 yellow cards in the EPL.

3. Didier Drogba – Chelsea

The Ivorian forward Didier Drogba is on the right path to transforming himself into the best goal scorer of Europe this season. Despite having won the award of the Premier League’s top scorer in the past, Drogba has never won the UEFA Golden Shoe award in his life; but he could make an attempt to surpass his contenders at the top and grab the honor.

Drogba presently has 25 goals for Chelsea in the Premier League this season in 28 appearances; hence, he is just one goal behind Wayne Rooney of Manchester United. The 32-year old striker has 8 assists to himself, and as a player working in the top English football league, he has 50 points in the contest for the European Golden Shoe award – as of Day 34 in the Premier League.

4. Gonzalo Higuain – Real Madrid

Gonzalo Higuain - Real Madrid player, La Liga second top scorer The Real Madrid superstar has appeared to be Los Blancos best goal scorer this season. The Argentine forward has scored 24 goals for the Spanish League title contenders this season, and consequently, he has 48 points in his name.

Higuain is behind Messi, Rooney and Drogba in the rankings ahead of the European Golden Shoe award, but with only 3 goals or 6 points separating him from the list’s leader, Higuain has hopes that he will finish in pole position. Gonzalo Higuain was unable to help Real Madrid get a good run in the Copa del Rey and in the UEFA Champions League, and therefore, he is now forced to put all he has in the Spanish La Liga.

Higuain has been progressing very rapidly in the standings for the goal scorers in Spain, and at the very moment we speak, he is now only 3 goals away from leader Lionel Messi. The 22-year old also has 3 assists, and with 7 games to go in La Liga, there is a lot Higuain can look ahead to.

5. Luis Suarez – Ajax Amsterdam

Luis Suarez - Ajax player, Eredivisie top scorer Luis Suarez, also Luis Alberto Suarez, is a striker currently playing for the Ajax football club in the Eredivisie. The Uruguayan front player entered the list of the top 10 contenders for the European Golden Shoe award by scoring 32 goals for his club.

As a player in the Netherlands, Suarez’s total number of goals is multiplied by 1.5; and as a result, at this time, he has 48 points in the challenge. The 23-year old player has 32 goals in only 30 appearances for Ajax Amsterdam this season. It is not surprising that despite the low coefficient of his league, his name is still in the list of Europe’s best forwards this season.

6. Antonio Di Natale – Udinese

Antonio Di Natale - Udinese forward, Italy The Italian Serie A top scorer has scored 23 goals for Udinese at the moment, but in view of his good form, it doesn’t look like his tally will stay unmodified before the end of the season. Di Natale has appeared 30 times in all for Udinese in the league so far, but he has managed to make an impact in his club.

The Italian forward however needs to concentrate on his behavior, for just as Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, Di Natale has 5 yellow cards. The attacker – who has grabbed 46 points in the challenge for the award – also has 5 assists so far, but with five games to go before the season ends in Italy, the 32-year old No. 10 player could get closer to his rivals at the top of the rankings for the European Golden Shoe award.

7. Darren Bent – Sunderland

Darren Bent - Sunderland front player, Premier League The forward from Sunderland is third in the Premier League’s standings for the top scorers with 22 goals. Bent is behind Drogba who has 25 goals and Rooney who has 26, but he could still make a surprise in the final stages of this season; as even a hat-trick would be of great importance, despite not being enough to give him the European Golden Shoe award.

Darren Bent has featured 34 times for his club Sunderland in the Premier League this season, and he only has a single assist to be proud of so far. Regardless, he is still a dangerous contender for the UEFA Golden Boot award, and what seems to be very beneficial for the 26-year old striker is that he doesn’t have any risk of missing any game, considering the fact that he has zero yellow cards.

Furthermore, Darren Bent has 44 points in the standings for the prestigious UEFA award. Evidently, he might need to do some catch-up to get a better place in the rankings.

8. Carlos Tevez – Manchester City

Carlos Tevez - Manchester City forward, Premier League The Argentine striker Carlos Tevez has been in superb shape for England’s richest club, Manchester City. Tevez has scored 21 goals for the Mancunians this season in the Premier League, and this gives him 42 points in the contest for the European Golden Shoe award.

Carlos Tevez is the fourth best goal scorer in the Barclays Premier League, and having appeared 30 times for the Citizens, he has reasons to be happy with his achievement. The “Tasmania Devil” also has 7 assists for himself and 6 yellow cards, which is the evidence of his aggression that turns out to be somewhat negative on some occasions.

9. Seydou Doumbia – Young Boys Bern

Seydou Doumbia - Swiss League Seydou Doumbia is the top scorer of the Swiss Super League this season with 27 goals. But the low coefficient of his league only multiplies his goal tally by 1.5, limiting his total number of points acquired in the contest for the European Golden Shoe award to 40.5.

The 22-year old forward is a striker for Young Boys Bern, and he has 25 appearances for his club as of April 13. Unfortunately, as a player from the Swiss Super League, the Ivorian front player will have to make additional efforts to elevate his standard among his challengers for the honor.

10. David Villa – Valencia

David Villa - Valencia forward, La Liga The Spanish striker David Villa has 20 goals in La Liga for his club this season so far. Villa is third in the Top Scorers’ chart in the Primera Division behind Lionel Messi and Gonzalo Higuain, but luckily, his name is included in the list of the top 10 challengers for the UEFA Golden Shoe award.

Villa has 40 points in his name as he plays in the world’s second best league, and in view of the high coefficient from which he is profiting, he could quickly get back to his best and focus on reaching at least the second place as a runner-up for the award. The 28-year old Valencia striker has 27 appearances for Los Che at the moment and 3 assists, but he has already been disciplined by 4 yellow cards. A bit more than a goal per game in David Villa’s 7 remaining challenges in La Liga this season could make him Europe’s Golden Shoe winner.

The UEFA Golden Shoe – Past Winners

This honor was created during the 1967-68 season and since then; this award has not stopped being contested by players around Europe annually. Eusebio, Gerd Muller, Dudu Georgescu, and Fernando Gomes are nevertheless the most notable winners of the European Golden Shoe award, having won the trophy twice in their career each.