Kane, Messi, Cavani and Salah in super-tight European Golden Shoe race
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The battle for this season’s European Golden Shoe is set to go down to the wire.
The famous award has been won by all the legends down the years.
Eusebio, Gerd Muller, Ian Rush, Marco van Basten, Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have all won the sought-after boot.
With two months of the season remaining, five players are locked on 48 points.
Edinson Cavani, Ciro Immobile, Messi, Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah have all scored 24 league goals this term and they all play in leagues with a ratio of two.
Points are awarded by multiplying the number of goals scored by the difficulty rating of the league they play in.
Benfica striker Jonas has scored 31 times in Portugal’s Primeira Liga, but the league’s ratio of 1.5 gives him 46.5 points.
Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski is also in the hunt on 46 points, before a gap to Sergio Aguero, Luis Suarez and the injured Neymar (42 points.)
Our traders make Barcelona ace Messi the 4/7 favourite to win the award for a fifth time this season.
Given the dominance of Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 though, Cavani is a serious contender at 4/1.
The Uruguayan’s hopes will also be boosted by the absence of Neymar, which enhances Cavani’s chances of bagging a hatful of goals.
It’s 10/3 for Salah to become the first Liverpool striker since Rush in 1984 to claim the golden shoe.
Immobile could factor strongly if he continues to plunder the goals for Lazio at 4/1.
Kane (5/1) saw his chances ruined after the Tottenham Hotspur striker suffered an ankle injury on Sunday.
Kevin Phillips looks set to remain the only Englishman to have won the European Golden Shoe, doing so with his 30-goal haul in the 1999-2000 season.
All Odds and Markets correct as of date of publication
