5 players that could beat Lionel Messi to the European Golden Shoe this season
The European Golden Shoe (also called the European Golden Boot) is one of the most coveted individual awards in football, granted to the top goalscorer across every domestic league on the European continent annually and taking into consideration the level of each league while appointing point values in relation to the competitiveness of every division.
Barcelona playmaker, Lionel Messi won the accolade for the second time in a row last season, outscoring every player on the continent with his 34 La Liga goals for Barcelona during the campaign and he has started the current season as the favourite to defend the honour having bagged 7 goals to his name in the Spanish top flight already.
However, Europe is well blessed with a lot of incredible and deadly attackers who have also started the campaign in an electrifying form - scoring goals almost at will and proving that they are capable of finishing as the top scorer on the continent this season.
Therefore, we take a look at 5 incredible superstars that could beat Lionel Messi in the race for the European Golden Shoe during the campaign:
#5. Paco Alcacer
In what has probably been the biggest surprise of the season so far, Dortmund striker Paco Alcacer has been in unbelievable form since the beginning of the campaign. The Spaniard left the Nou Camp to complete a loan move to join German outfit, Borussia Dortmund this summer and he has quickly established himself as one of the deadliest finishers in Europe at the moment.
Alcacer opened his Bundesliga campaign with a decent performance and scored a brilliant goal in his debut match for the BVB as they hammered Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 in September. Ever since then, the striker has been quite unstoppable in front of goal, recording an impressive 7 goals to his name in the German top flight.
It becomes even more interesting to learn that the Spaniard has bagged such impressive number of goals despite the fact that he has started only one Bundesliga game so far and recording a total of just 126 minutes on the pitch for the German leaders this season.
If he manages to continue with such incredible form, there is no doubt he could claim the European Golden Shoe, come the end of the term.