Super Eagles striker Taiwo Awoniyi is ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the 2021 Golden Shoe award, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Awoniyi, who was left out of the Eagles squad for the upcoming Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers against Liberia and Cape Verde, has scored more goals than the duo, who have won the Ballon d’Or a combined 11 times.
Awoniyi has scored seven league goals in 11 Bundesliga games (12 goals in 19 games) for Union Berlin so far this season – beating his record of last year when he bagged five goals.
Messi — a winner of 38 titles, six Ballon d’Or trophies and eight Pichichi awards — has scored three goals in three UEFA Champions League games for PSG this term, but he is yet to get off the mark for the Les Parisiens in Ligue 1 after featuring in three games.
Ronaldo, who has five Ballon d’Or trophies to his name, as well as being the Champions League’s all-time leading scorer with 134 goals in 176 appearances, has scored four goals with one assist in eight Premier League games (nine in 12 games across all competitions) for Manchester United since his return to the club.
Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, who scored a monumental 41 league goals to win the award last year, currently leads the chart with 13 league goals from 11 games.
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Ciro Immobile (Lazio) and Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) are all tied in second place having scored 10 goals for their respective teams.
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Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland and Verona’s Giovanni Simeone have both scored nine goals each, while Patrik Schick of Bayer Leverkusen, Fiorentina’s Dusan Vlahovic, Koln’s Anthony Modeste and Gaetan Laborde of Stade Rennes have bagged eight goals in 16 games for their teams.
Awoniyi is tied on seven goals with Jamie Vardy of Leicester City, Edin Dzeko of Inter Milan, Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr, Andy Delort of Stade Rennes and Duvan Zapata of Atalanta.
Other players who have scored seven goals for their teams in Europe’s top five leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1) in the reckoning for the 2021 Golden Shoe award are Saint-Etienne’s Wahbi Khazri, Atletico Madrid’s Luis Suarez, Espanyol’s Raul de Tomas, Clermont Foot’s Mohamed Bayo, Strasbourg’s Habib Diallo and Cagliari’s Joao Pedro.
Players on six goals are PSG’s Kylian Mbappe, Liverpool’s Sadio Mane, Barcelona’s Memphis Depay, Serge Gnabry of Bayern Munich, Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Genoa’s Mattia Destro, Dimitri Payet (Marseille), West Ham’s Michail Antonio, Nantes’ Ludovic Blas, Amine Gouiri of Nice and Monaco’s Wissam Ben Yedder.
SOURCE : punch
