vivaronaldo.com

Manchester United FC forward Cristiano Ronaldo took a giant stride towards winning the ESM Golden Shoe by scoring two more goals against West Ham United FC on Saturday. The Portuguese international struck twice in the opening 24 minutes at Old Trafford to set up a 4-1 victory that moved Sir Alex Ferguson’s team to within touching distance of the Premier League title.
With his closest challenger Klaas Jan Huntelaar out of contention having already completed the season with AFC Ajax, and neither Emmanuel Adebayor nor Luis Fabiano registering at the weekend, Ronaldo appears certain to add another personal award to his Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year accolade. “It is wonderful to score so many times,” said the 23-year-old, who can equal the Premier League record of 31 held by Alan Shearer by scoring once in the final game at Wigan Athletic FC next Sunday. “I have to thank my team-mates as they give me great passes. If they give me an opportunity, I’m confident I can score.”

RCD Mallorca striker Daniel Güiza has an outside chance of pipping Ronaldo after the 27-year-old climbed to fourth in the rankings with a double against Athletic Club Bilbao, leaving him six goals shy of the leader with three Primera División matches remaining. Liverpool FC’s Fernando Torres joins his fellow Spaniard in the top six after notching his 23rd goal of the campaign to clinch a 1-0 win over Manchester City FC, while Roque Santa Cruz took his tally to 19 with a brace for Blackburn Rovers against Derby County FC.

ESM Golden Shoe standings: 28 April
Capped players eligible for EURO finals in bold

Pos Player Club/National team Gls Val Pts
1 Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United FC / Portugal 30 2 60
2 Klaas Jan Huntelaar* AFC Ajax / Netherlands 33 1.5 49.5
3 Daniel Güiza RCD Mallorca / Spain 24 2 48
3 Emmanuel Adebayor Arsenal FC / Togo 24 2 48
5 Luis Fabiano Sevilla FC / Brazil 23 2 46
5 Fernando Torres Liverpool FC / Spain 23 2 46
7 Luca Toni FC Bayern München / Italy 21 2 42
8 Rhys Griffiths* Llanelli AFC / Wales 40 1 40
9 Marco Borriello Genoa CFC / Italy 19 2 38
9 Karim Benzema Olympique Lyonnais / France 19 2 38
9 David Trezeguet Juventus / France 19 2 38
9 Roque Santa Cruz Blackburn Rovers FC / Paraguay 19 2 38
13 Alessandro Del Piero Juventus / Italy 18 2 36
13 Lisandro López FC Porto / Argentina 24 1.5 36
13 Scott McDonald Celtic FC / Australia 24 1.5 36
16 Hakan Yakin BSC Young Boys / Switzerland 23 1.5 34.5
17 Raúl González Real Madrid CF / Spain 17 2 34
17 Adrian Mutu ACF Fiorentina / Italy 17 2 34

Only the leading five countries (Spain, Italy, Germany, France and England) on the UEFA Ranking have two as their multiplier. This is to emphasise the difference in (international) performance level between the clubs from those countries and those from the other countries.

A player cannot first play in a summer league (eg Norway) and then in a winter league (eg Spain) and combine the points total for each season.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Awards.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.