Stats: Jonas overtakes Suarez and Higuain while Messi misses out on the top 10 of the European Golden Shoe charts
The European Golden Shoe charts has a new leader and it is surprisingly Benfica’s Brazilian striker Jonas. While Suarez and Higuain have rightly taken the plaudits for their wonderful goal scoring form this season, Jonas has been quietly plundering goals in the Portugues Super Liga.
The Brazilian's 26 goals puts him one ahead of Higuain and Suarez for the season whilst Lewandowski and Ronaldo are a further two behind on 23. Zlatan Ibrahimovic also has 23 goals but he comes way below in 12th position because the Golden Shoe is awarded on a points system based on the League’s coefficient .
The EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and the Portuguese Super Liga have a factor of 2 while France’s Ligue 1 has a factor of 1.5 which leaves Zlatan in 12th place.
Lionel Messi has scored 16 goals this season and he is currently in 18th position. However, we can never discount Messi from the European Golden Shoe race. Another name which will surprise people is Maccabi Tel Aviv’s striker E. Zahavi who has also scored 26 goals but finds himself in 7th spot because of his league’s coefficient.
Here is the top 10 names in the European Golden Shoe Leaderboard
| Rank | Name | Team | League | Goals | Factor | Points |
| 1 | Jonas | Benfica | POR | 26 | 2 | 52 |
| 2 | Gonzalo Higuain | Napoli | ITA | 25 | 2 | 50 |
| 2 | Luis Suarez | Barcelona | SPA | 25 | 2 | 50 |
| 4 | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern Munich | GER | 23 | 2 | 46 |
| 4 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | SPA | 23 | 2 | |
| 6 | P.E.Aubameyang | Borussia Dortmund | GER | 21 | 2 | 42 |
| 7 | E.Zahavi | Maccabi Tel Aviv | ISR | 26 | 1.5 | 39 |
| 8 | Jamie Vardy | Leicester City | ENG | 19 | 2 | 38 |
| 9 | Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | SPA | 19 | 2 | 38 |
| 10 | Neymar | Barcelona | SPA | 18 | 2 | 36 |
With all the top 5 names still alive in the Champions League, it will be interesting to see who finally wins the Golden Shoe.