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MESSI GETS EUROPE’S GOLDEN SHOE

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Barcelona’s Lionel Messi was on Friday awarded the Golden Shoe for his attacking exploits during the 2016-17 season. Messi topped the European goal-scoring charts with 37 last season.

According to theScore publication, Messi was ahead of Bas Dost the Sporting CP striker who scored 33 goals as well as Borussia Dortmund forward, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who scored 30 goals in the season under review.

Messi’s teammate Luis Suarez as well as Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski who scored 28 and 29 goals respectively were other contenders.

This is his fourth Golden Shoe, having previously won the award for the 2009-10, 2011-12, and 2012-13 seasons. He succeeds Suarez for this year’s nod.

“I have kept growing off the field and on it. I am improving and adding things to my game, every day I enjoy being a footballer more,” Messi said, per the club’s official Twitter account.

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The diminutive Argentine was unable to top his personal best with those 37 goals – Messi previously won the prize with 46 tallies in 2012-13 and 50 in 2011-12, the current record in this category.

Messi and archrival Cristiano Ronaldo now have four Golden Shoe awards each, with the latter’s 48 goals in 2014-15 accounting for his own best-ever tally, and his latest victory.

 

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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