Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo takes pole position in Golden Shoe race

The Portguese scored in his side's 3-1 win over Real Zaragoza to pull clear of Lionel Messi, who had a frustrating weekend

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Cristiano Ronaldo's strike five minutes into the second half of Real Madrid's win over Zaragoza was enough for the Portuguese to overtake Trans Narva's goal-hero Aleksandrs Cekulajevs in the race for the golden boot.

Ronaldo's arch-rival Lionel Messi endured a more frustrating weekend, as his Barcelona side limped to a goalless draw against Villarreal.

Robin van Persie's two penalties in Arsenal's FA Cup win over Aston Villa do not count in the race, so the Dutchman remains six points behind the Argentine in fourth.

Seydou Doumbia's continued involvement at the African Cup of Nations has allowed Burak Yilmaz, who netted in Trabzonspor's victories over Eskisehirspor and Ankaragucu, to move into fifth place.

Mario Gomez and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar both scored one goal each, ensuring the Bayern Munich striker remains ahead of his Schalke counterpart.

Demba Ba, another striker on international duty at the African Cup of Nations, has slipped behind Huntelaar, level on points with Olivier Giroud, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lukas Podolski, who were all on the score-sheet for their clubs over the weekend.

Rank	Player	Country	Club	League	Weight	Goals	Points
1	C. Ronaldo	POR	Real Madrid	ESP	2	24	48
2	A Cekulajevs	LVA	Trans Narva	EST	1	46	46
3	L. Messi	ARG	Barcelona	ESP	2	22	44
4	R. v Persie	NED	Arsenal	ENG	2	19	38
5	B. Yilmaz	TUR	Trabzonspor	TUR	1.5	25	37.5
6	S. Doumbia	CIV	CSKA	RUS	1.5	24	36
7	M. Gomez	GER	Bayern	GER	2	17	34
8	K. Huntelaar	NED	Schalke	GER	2	16	32
9	Demba Ba	SEN	Newcastle	ENG	2	15	30
	O. Giroud	FRA	Montpellier	FRA	2	15	30
	Ibrahimovic	SWE	AC Milan	ITA	2	15	30
	L. Podolski	GER	Koln	GER	2	15	30

* = 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 90's andL'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, 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.

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