Cristiano Ronaldo Names Neymar, Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney as Golden Shoe Rivals

Despite recently scoring the 501st goal of a staggeringly prolific career, Crisitiano Ronaldo is not taking this season’s Golden Shoe award—handed to the most free-scoring player in European football—for granted, citing Lionel Messi, Neymar and Wayne Rooney as big rivals for the gong.

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The Real Madrid forward listed his main challengers to Marca:

“There's [Sergio] Aguero, [Robert] Lewandowski, Rooney, Luis Suarez, Neymar [and] Messi,” he said. “I think there are a lot of world-class players out there. I'm really happy to have won it four times, and I'd love to keep winning it if I can, although we'll see what happens over the course of the year”

Here’s a look at how those players named by Ronaldo have fared in their respective domestic leagues so far this season:

	Appearances (Sub)	Goals
Ronaldo	7	5
Messi	5 (1)	3
Neymar	6	4
Suarez	6	3
Lewandowski	5 (2)	12
Rooney	7	1
Aguero	7 (1)	6

The Portuguese has won this competition four times in his distinguished career—three times while playing for Los Blancos and once during his time with Manchester United. Should he triumph again at the end of the 2015-16 season, it’d be Ronaldo’s third win in a row.

It’s a unique competition that applies to every player in European football’s top flights. Coefficients are applied to each of the divisions depending on the standard of the league, with the top five competitions given a multiplier of two, while others are attributed a multiplier of one-and-a-half or one.

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As noted by the official Real Madrid Twitter feed, Ronaldo is out on his own in terms of overall wins:

He may have a fight on to retain the trophy this year, though, especially given the form of Bayern Munich’s Lewandowski. The Polish striker currently leads the standings on 24 points from Levadia Tallinn’s Ingemar Teever and Tomas Radzinevicius of FK Suduva, who are each on 21 points, per euroTOPfoot.

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Lewandowski has been regularly applying the finishing touches to Bayern’s vibrant attacking play this term. It’s encouraging to see a new name in the hunt for the award too, with Ronaldo and Messi winning it seven times between them in the last nine years. Zezo Cartoons offered its take on Lewandowski’s remarkable recent form:

Things can change quickly, though. Aguero seemed to be struggling for form before he rattled in five goals for Manchester City against Newcastle United last time out, while Suarez and Neymar will be tasked with firing Barcelona to wins without the injured Messi in the side over the coming weeks.

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Rooney is one man who will need a dramatic shift in fortunes if he’s to live up to Ronaldo’s billing as a main contender. As Uber Football pointed out, the Manchester United man is not currently in the same class as some of the aforementioned names:

Ronaldo will remain the big favourite to take this award for a third time in succession, though. While the daring wing play that was such a dominent feature of the Portuguese’s game earlier in his career is becoming more and more scarce, Ronaldo’s instincts in front of goal remain sharp. If the service to him is of a high standard, he will continue to score goals for a while yet.

With Messi injured and likely to continue playing a more withdrawn role when he does return to the Barcelona team, Lewandowski looks as though he’ll be the Real Madrid man’s biggest competitor for the prize. However, it’s an award that will surely only be enjoyed should either fire his side to glory in its domestic division.