Messi set to break long-standing Golden Shoe record

By Our Reporter

BARCELONA star, Lionel Messi will almost certainly win his third consecutive European Golden Shoe this weekend – breaking a long-standing record held by Rangers legend Ally McCoist.

First introduced for the 1967/68 season by French football magazine L’Equipe, it has been handed out by the European Sports Media (ESM) since the 1996/97 season, where a points-based system has been in place.

The Golden Shoe is given to the top goalscorer across European leagues at the end of each season.

Messi looks set to claim the prize yet again, unless Kylian Mbappe can score five when Paris Saint-Germain play Stade Reims tomorrow.

The Argentine genius scored twice during Barcelona’s final game of the season, a 2-2 draw with Eibar, to reach 36 goals in 34 games.

He will become the first player in history to win the Golden Shoe in three consecutive years after netting 37 goals during the 2016/17 season and 34 last campaign.

However, he is not the only man to have won it twice in a row.

McCoist was the most prolific striker in Europe for two seasons in a row

McCoist’s Rangers heroics during the 1991/92 and 1992/93 seasons means he shares the record with Messi – Cristiano Ronaldo and Thierry Henry did it, but had to share it with someone else.

McCoist scored 34 goals in both campaigns as the Gers stormed their way to the Scottish league title.

Sadly for Ally, there was no award handed out between 1991 and 1996 – when he was scoring for fun – owing to a dispute with the Cyprus Football Association over who the rightful winner was.

How Golden Shoe is calculated:

For those of you who don’t know how the Golden Shoe standings are calculated, UEFA’s definition is as follows:

*The rankings are based on league goals scored multiplied by a figure denoting the difficulty ranking of each league, which is calculated using the UEFA coefficient list.

*Only the top five leagues [Premier League, Serie A, LaLiga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1] have a x2 multiplier.

*Middle ranked leagues have a x1.5 multiplier, while the lower-ranked leagues are x1.

Golden Shoe as it stands:

1. Lionel Messi (Barcelona, ESP) – 36 goals x 2 league multiplier = 72 points

2. Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain, FRA) – 32 x 2 = 64 points

Messi has won the European Golden Shoe five times and is the only player to score 50 goals in a single season, which he did in 2011/12.

He is Barcelona’s all-time top scorer with an incredible 602 goals.

Source: talkSPORT