Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Robbie Copeland

Kyogo and Lawrence Shankland in European Golden Shoe race as Celtic and Hearts stars join Erling Haaland and co

Kyogo and Lawrence Shankland are among the contenders for the European Golden Boot - but have some work to do to catch runaway leader Erling Haaland.

The Celtic and Hearts stars are out in front at the top of the Premiership scoring charts with Kyogo firing 17 while Shankland stands just behind on 16 having returned to Scotland with a bang in the summer. Unless the likes of Antonio Colak or Bojan Miovski have stunning second halves of the season, it looks like one of that pair will be going home with the golden boot come May.

Their goalscoring exploits however have also put them in some star-studded company on the European stage. Every year, one player is awarded the European Golden Shoe - won six times by Lionel Messi and once by Henrik Larsson while at Parkhead. Any player in the top division of a UEFA nation can win it but it is not straightforward for a player outside of the elite leagues.

Points are weighted based on the UEFA coefficient standing of the country. Goals by players in the top five leagues are multiplied by two, goals by players in countries ranked 6-22 are multiplied by 1.5, and players in nations further down earn a single point for every goal.

In other words, Haaland has scored 25 goals this season to earn him 50 points. For Kyogo or Shankland to top that that, they would need to net 34 Premiership goals - which would earn 51 points (34 x 1.5). For Bobur Abdikolikhov, currently firing in the goals in Belarus, that would take 51 goals, since Belarus is outside of the top 22.

Anyway that's the boring stuff out the way so how does the table actually look as things stand? Unsurprisingly Haaland is the runaway leader, but it's tight behind him. Bodo/Glimt's Amahl Pellegrino is second with 25 goals for 37.5 points in Norway, Harry Kane is in third (15 goals/30 points) and Robert Lewandowski in fourth (13 goals/26 points).

Kyogo is back in ninth but with 25.5 points, he's only a goal away from climbing as high as fourth - ahead of the likes of Lewandowski and Kylian Mbappe. It's similar for Shankland, who is just one goal further behind in 13th place and would just need a couple of strikes to propel up up the table.

Only three players outside of the top five leagues have ever won it - one of which was Larsson back in 2001. It took the Parkhead legend 35 goals to do it, a total that would almost certainly not be enough this season given the rate Haaland is scoring at in England.

European Golden Boot standings 2022/23

Player Goals Points
1. Erling Haaland (Man City) 25 50
2. Amahl Pellegrino (Bodo/Glimt) 25 37.5
3. Harry Kane (Spurs) 15 30
4. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) 13 26
5. Bobur Abdikholikov (BGU Minsk) 26 26
6. Victor Osimhen (Napoli) 13 26
7. Kylian Mbappe (PSG) 13 26
8. Ivan Toney (Brentford) 13 26
9. Kyogo (Celtic) 17 25.5
10. Raimonds Krollis (Valmiera, Spezia) 24 24
11. Jairo (Pafos) 16 24
12. Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig) 12 24

13. Lawrence Shankland (Hearts)

16 24
14. Terem Moffi (Lorient) 12 24
15. Jonathan David (Lille) 12 24

READ NEXT

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.