Golden Shoe 2015-16: Top Goalscorers in Europe, Updated Standings on April 18

Cristiano Ronaldo opened up a narrow lead at the front of the race for the European Golden Shoe with his strike against Getafe at the weekend, and there was plenty of activity behind him.

Robert Lewandowski bagged a brace as Bayern Munich beat Schalke 3-0, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic did the same for Paris Saint-Germain as they routed Caen 6-0. Lionel Messi netted for Barcelona—his 500th career goal for club and country—but it was not enough to prevent their defeat at the hands of Valencia as their title challenge continued to falter.

Leicester City's Jamie Vardy added to his tally to move level with Harry Kane, but he won't have the chance to add to his 22 goals in the Foxes' next match after then getting two yellow cards. Sergio Aguero's hat-trick for Manchester City put him just one point behind the English pair, though Kane will play on Monday night.

Here is how the standings are shaping up as of April 18:

Position	Player	Team	Goals x Factor	Overall
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	31 x 2.0	62.0
T2	Jonas	Benfica	30 x 2.0	60.0
T2	Gonzalo Higuain	Napoli	30 x 2.0	60.0
4	Robert Lewandowski	Bayern Munich	27 x 2.0	54.0
5	Luis Suarez	Barcelona	26 x 2.0	52.0
T6	Islam Slimani	Sporting CP	24 x 2.0	48.0
T6	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	PSG	32 x 1.5	48.0
8	Eran Zahavi	Maccabi Tel Aviv	31 x 1.5	46.5
T9	Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Borussia Dortmund	23 x 2.0	46.0
T9	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	23 x 2.0	46.0
T11	Harry Kane	Tottenham Hotspur	22 x 2.0	44.0
T11	Jamie Vardy	Leicester City	22 x 2.0	44.0
T11	Karim Benzema	Real Madrid	22 x 2.0	44.0
T14	Sergio Aguero	Manchester City	21 x 2.0	42.0

Rules: Each European league is given a difficulty constant between one and two, and that is multiplied by a player's goal tally to reach their overall points score.

For example, Ronaldo's goals come in La Liga and are therefore doubled, whereas Zlatan Ibrahimovic's are multiplied by 1.5.

Ronaldo Takes the Lead

Real Madrid roared back into the title race on Saturday with a 5-1 win over Getafe, though with five different goalscorers for Los Blancos, Ronaldo had to wait until injury time to find the net himself having struck the post from distance early in the first half.

Whereas Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale were substituted by Zinedine Zidane for a rest once the game had been put to bed by the Welshman shortly after the restart, Ronaldo was left on, as football journalist Dermot Corrigan noted:

Indeed, the 31-year-old completed the match, and according to AS, he is now the only outfield player in the league to have featured for every minute.

The Guardian's Sid Lowe reflected on his achievement:

He was rewarded for staying on by eventually finding the net himself, tapping in Real's fifth after being found by Jese Rodriguez.

He's not likely to be troubled in the race by his great rival Messi at this point, with the Argentinian still eight goals back after he netted his 23rd La Liga goal of the season on Sunday by coolly converting Jordi Alba's cross.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

As Corrigan noted, the 28-year-old will have just been happy to end his goal drought:

However, the Blaugrana were already 2-0 down before Messi struck, and his goal was unable to spark a comeback, leaving Barca just one point ahead of Real and Atletico Madrid in the title race.

Lewandowski also ended something of a drought having gone four matches without a goal, but he rectified that in style with two goals in 11 minutes on Saturday, which marked an incredible overall tally for club and country this season, per Bayern Munich:

The Pole has also stood out in the Bundesliga and has done for some time, as Squawka Football revealed:

He opened the scoring in the second half after controlling Arturo Vidal's pass on his chest before turning and firing past Ralf Fahrmann, and shortly after, he doubled Bayern's lead with a header.

In the Premier League, Aguero was undoubtedly the outstanding player of the weekend, as Bleacher Report UK noted:

The Argentinian may not be troubling the race for the European Golden Shoe, but he's certainly in contention for the Premier League's Golden Boot after his hat-trick. He received a slice of luck to net his first after seeing his effort deflect in off Gary Cahill, and the striker then finished off a wonderful counter-attack for his second and rounded out the goals with a penalty.

Ibrahimovic produced a similarly magnificent performance for PSG to help them bounce back from their UEFA Champions League disappointment, dominating the match as only he can.

The 34-year-old bagged his first just 12 minutes in with a low, powerful effort that evaded Remy Vercoutre, and he scored again in the second half, volleying in a cross from Layvin Kurzawa. He also provided assists for Blaise Matuidi and Angel Di Maria.

Squawka Football shared his impressive stats:

As Infostrada Sports demonstrated, Ibrahimovic leads the way on goals scored in Europe this season:

Indeed, the Swede is enjoying his best-ever season in French football goalwise, but he's hindered by Ligue 1's lower difficulty rating when compared with the top flights in England, Spain, Germany and Italy.

He's appears set to leave PSG this summer when his contract expires, though, and it seems likely he will end up in one of the leagues with a higher difficulty constant.

Claiming the Golden Shoe next year would still be an incredibly difficult task given he will be 35 in October, but if he could replicate a similarly impressive campaign, he could well be in contention.