Lionel Messi is now facing an uphill task to catch the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the European Golden Shoe award. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick this weekend in the match against Levante, which have hugely boosted the chances of him winning this coveted award.
The hat-trick helped him go clear of both Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Arsenal’s Robin van Persie, who are the closest challengers for the Portuguese. Cristiano Ronaldo has so far scored 27 goals this season, while Lionel Messi comes in closer at 23 goals and Robin van Persie has 22 goals to his credit.
Barcelona fell 10 points behind Real Madrid this weekend after they lost to Osasuna 3-2, while Real Madrid managed to take advantage of this defeat by winning against Levante later on Sunday. Cristiano Ronaldo has the record for reaching the fastest 50 goals at Real Madrid. Now, he looks on course to lift the coveted European Golden Shoe award. Lionel Messi has been in contention for this award over the last few years. He has been regularly scoring more than 40 goals a season for Barcelona over the last few seasons. However, Barcelona this season have been struggling for form, which might affect Lionel Messi’s chances of winning the title this time around.
Players from the Premier league who are currently in contention for the title include the likes of Wayne Rooney of Manchester United and Demba Ba of Newcastle United. Even though Cekulajevs has scored 46 goals in the season so far, he will not be able to catch Cristiano Ronaldo due to the fact that his league has a total weight of just one point per goal and due to the fact that his season at Estonia has just come to an end.