The Brazilian star Neymar, a Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) player, has shaken up the competition to win the European Golden Shoe award, which is given to players who score the largest number of goals in European leagues.
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, commonly known by just his first name, scored four goals for a super hat-trick in the PSG win over Dijon, with eight goals in the match at the Garden of the Princes in the 21st round of the France Ligue 1.
Neymar increased the number of goals scored in the current version of the French league competition to 15 goals. He gained 30 points in the race to win the Golden Shoe award.
This came as Edinson Cavani, the star of France’s PSG, was the top scorer in Europe with Tottenham Hotspur’s striker Harry Kane and Italian SS Lazio striker Ciro Immobile after scoring a goal in a match with Dijon, making a win of 8-0. This increased the number of his scored goals to 20 and his points to 40.
Kavanagh, Harri Keane, and Imobili have beaten Egypt and Liverpool FC player Mohamed Salah, who scored 18 goals gaining 36 points, becoming even with Inter Milan’s Mauro Icardi and Lionel Messi, the star of Spain’s FC Barcelona who scored 17 goals in La Liga, and has a total of 34 points.
The Golden Shoe award is awarded to the best scorer in Europe by multiplying the number of goals by the number of points 2, 1.5, or 1 according to the level of the league in which the player plays.
The following are the levels of the major leagues to calculate the number of points:
Italian league (2), Spanish league (2), German league (2), French league (2), Dutch league (1.5), Belgian league (1.5), Bulgarian league (1.5), Swiss league (1.5), and Portugese league (1.5).
