Golden Shoe 2016-17: Top Goalscorers in Europe, Latest Points Table on Feb. 13

Paris Saint-Germain striker Edinson Cavani shot to the top of the standings in the race for the Golden Shoe as he bagged a brace in the 3-0 win over Bordeaux on Friday.

Along with a goal in midweek as PSG beat Lille OSC 2-1, Cavani has now scored 25 Ligue 1 goals this season and sits on 37.5 points.

Close behind him are Edin Dzeko, Luis Suarez and Gonzalo Higuain on 36 points, all of whom netted over the weekend, and there was plenty of movement behind them in the standings as Lionel Messi, Alexis Sanchez and Andrea Belotti took their tallies to 34 points.

Here's a look at the top of the leaderboard:

Position	Player	Team	Goals x Factor	Points
1	Edinson Cavani	Paris Saint-Germain	25 x 1.5	37.5
T2	Luis Suarez	Barcelona	18 x 2.0	36.0
T2	Edin Dzeko	AS Roma	18 x 2.0	36.0
T2	Gonzalo Higuain	Juventus	18 x 2.0	36.0
T4	Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Borussia Dortmund	17 x 2.0	34.0
T4	Alexis Sanchez	Arsenal	17 x 2.0	34.0
T4	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	17 x 2.0	34.0
T4	Andrea Belotti	Torino	17 x 2.0	34.0
T4	Bas Dost	Sporting CP	17 x 2.0	34.0
T10	Romelu Lukaku	Everton	16 x 2.0	32.0

Rules: Each European league is assigned a difficulty rating between one and two. For example, Cavani's goals are worth 1.5 points as that is Ligue 1's difficulty rating, whereas goals in the Premier League or La Liga are worth two points.

Cavani Out in Front

Cavani has been in exceptional form of late, and he added two more goals to his tally on Friday with a pair of sublime volleys.

The first came just six minutes into the match, when he picked out the bottom corner from 20 yards with a looping effort after a poor headed clearance from Bordeaux.

After Angel Di Maria netted PSG's second shortly before half-time, he set up Cavani for his brace two minutes after the restart, with the Uruguayan converting his cross.

PSG took to Twitter to hail their star striker:

The 29-year-old has been left with the task of filling in for Zlatan Ibrahimovic this year, and he's done so with aplomb.

Goal's Mohammed Ali added further context:

Last season, Ibrahimovic finished the campaign with 38 league goals. Because of Ligue 1's lower difficulty rating, Cavani will need to achieve a similar tally if he's to have a chance of winning the Golden Shoe in May.

Chasing Pack Close Behind

In Serie A, Higuain has an unlikely rival for the honour of being the Capocannoniere winner this year in the form of Dzeko.

Maurizio Lagana/Getty Images

An underwhelming first season in Italy saw the Bosnia and Herzegovina international bag just 10 goals in all competitions last year, but he's been excellent for AS Roma in this campaign.

Gianluca Di Marzio's David Amoyal noted as much on Tuesday when he netted twice against Fiorentina in a 4-0 win:

On Sunday, he scored again to wrap up a 2-0 victory at Crotone courtesy of Mohamed Salah's incisive pass.

He also missed a penalty, which cost him the chance to be Serie A's sole top scorer, as Higuain scored both goals in Juve's 2-0 win over Cagliari.

The first came in the 37th minute when he latched on to a sublime ball from Claudio Marchisio before deftly chipping the ball over the goalkeeper, and he picked out the bottom corner from a tight angle for his second.

Squawka Football hailed his contributions this season:

Meanwhile, Suarez netted two of his own and assisted two as Barcelona romped to an impressive 6-0 victory over Alaves on Saturday in a dress rehearsal for the Copa del Rey final.

He opened the scoring as he converted Aleix Vidal's cross at the near post, and he wrapped it up with a volleyed rebound from the goalkeeper after his save from Neymar looped up nicely for the striker.

Just one goal would be enough for all three players to overtake Cavani, and with five players one more strike further back—including Messi—there's plenty of scope for the leaderboard to change dramatically before the season's end.