Cristiano Ronaldo pulls a goal clear of Lionel Messi in European Golden Shoe race

23-Apr-2012 4:25:00 PM

The Real Madrid record-breaker took himself two points ahead of his Argentine rival in the race to become Europe's top marksman

Cristiano Ronaldo pulled clear of Lionel Messi again in the European Golden Shoe standings after the Portuguese star scored the winner in Real Madrid's 2-1 win over Barcelona at Camp Nou on Saturday.

The former Manchester United forward netted past Victor Valdes in the 73rd minute to take Los Blancos seven points clear at the top of La Liga and in the process set a new personal league record by scoring 42 goals in a single season.

Robin van Persie remained in third place despite netting just once in his last seven Premier League outings and he failed to score again in Arsenal's 0-0 draw with Chelsea on Saturday. This allowed Wayne Rooney to move within one goal of him after the England international bagged two against his former team Everton, as Manchester United drew 4-4 with the Toffees at Old Trafford.

In the Bundesliga, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar joined Mario Gomez on 25 goals for the season after the Dutch forward netted in Schalke's 1-1 draw with Augsburg. The Bayern forward on the other hand, could not get on the scoresheet in the 20-minute cameo in his side's 2-1 win over Werder Bremen.

In joint-seventh, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a dramatic equaliser as Milan drew 1-1 at San Siro with Bologna. Burak Yilmaz meanwhile, could not find the net in Trabzonspor's 1-0 win against Besiktas.

Radamel Falcao also failed to score in Atletico Madrid's 3-1 win over Espanyol, and remains two points behind Aleksandr Cekulajevs. The Colombian is now joined by Sergio Aguero in 10th with 22 goals after the Manchester City striker found the back of the net in the 2-0 win at Wolves.

Rank	Player	Country	Club	League	Weight	Goals	Points
1	C. Ronaldo	POR	Real Madrid	ESP	2	42	84
2	L. Messi	ARG	Barcelona	ESP	2	41	82
3	R. v Persie	NED	Arsenal	ENG	2	27	54
4	W. Rooney	ENG	Man Utd	ENG	2	26	52
5	M. Gomez	GER	Bayern	GER	2	25	50
=	K. Huntelaar	NED	Schalke	GER	2	25	50
7	B. Yilmaz	TUR	Trabzonspor	TUR	1.5	32	48
=	Ibrahimovic	SWE	AC Milan	ITA	2	24	48
9	A Cekulajevs	LVA	Trans*	EST	1	46	46
10	R. Falcao	COL	Atl. Madrid	ESP	2	22	44
=	S. Aguero	ARG	Man City	ENG	2	22	44

* = league season finished

History & How It Works

In 1967-68, French football magazine L'Equipe opted to hand out an award to the top goalscorer in all European leagues for his good performances during the season. Between 1968 and 1991, high profile names such as Eusebio, Gerd Muller, Ian Rush and Marco van Basten won the coveted trophy.

However, the gap between big and small leagues started to grow in the early 90s and L'Equipe decided to make the competition unofficial after the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) issued a protest in 1991. Darko Pancev won the award that season with 34 goals, but the CFA claimed that a player had scored 40 goals in Cyprus that term.

Adidas, sponsor of the awards, still handed out the trophy until 1996 before European Sports Magazine (with L'Equipe as a member) decided to make the title official again. ESM divided all European leagues in three groups according to strength, and attached to each group a quotient by which the number of goals is multiplied to obtain the player's rating. The European Golden Shoe was thus no longer necessarily handed to the top goalscorer, but to the player with the most points.

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 all 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.

Players such as Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Forlan and Lionel Messi have won the European Golden Shoe in the past few seasons.