The final straight of the 2021/22 season sees Europe's major leagues gear up for title races, European qualification battles and relegation scraps.
Alongside the fight for team honours, the best strikers across the continent face-off for the European Golden Shoe, awarded to the top domestic goal scorer, with a new weighting system to separate tied scorers based on the UEFA co-efficient strength of their league.
Following its initial inception at the end of the 1967/68 season, the award is given to the player with the highest number of league goals in a European domestic league.
Portuguese icon Eusebio was the inaugural winner of the coveted prize with the former Benfica star one of 11 multiple winners up to 2021.
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Who are the front-runners to win the European Golden Shoe in 2022?
Bayern Munich superstar Robert Lewandowski is the current leader for the Golden Shoe as the Polish international aims to defend his 2021 title.
Lewandowski clinched the 2021 award with 41 Bundesliga goals in 2020/21 and this season has 34 goals with one game left to play.
However, the 34-game structure of the Bundesliga puts him at a disadvantage, as his rivals all play in 38-match seasons.
2020 winner Ciro Immobile of Lazio (27 goals) and Real Madrid hitman Karim Benzema (26) are both within striking range of Lewandowski, with extra games still to play.
Ohi Omoijuanfo scored 27 goals with Norway's Molde before his January move to Serbia with Red Star Belgrade, where he has scored a further six times. However, those leagues carry a smaller co-efficient rating than those of most of his rivals for the award.
Benfica hotshot Darwin Nunez is on 26, but also within a 34-game league and one with a lower co-efficient rating, with Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina/Juventus) on 23 Serie A goals.
Mo Salah is the strongest option from the Premier League, with 22 goals, but the Egyptian has two games to improve that tally with Jurgen Klopp's side.
How many goals are needed to win the European Golden Shoe?
Lionel Messi (when playing for Barcelona) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid and Manchester United) raised the average goal return in recent years, as they dominated the award between 2007 and 2019.
During that period, the pair won a joint total of 11 awards in 13 seasons, with Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez the only other winners – the latter shared the 2014 gong with Ronaldo.
Based on the past 15 seasons, a minimum of 30 league goals are needed to win it. The last winner to dip under that figure was Roma's Francesco Totti (26) in 2007.
That raising of the bar by Messi and Ronaldo brings up a mean average of 39.5 league goals per season to win it but that number is likely to be closer to 35 in 2021/22.
Who is the most successful winner of the European Golden Shoe?
Messi and Ronaldo are unsurprisingly the kingpins of the award, with the Argentinian legend on six titles, and Manchester United's No.7 on four.
Former Scotland international Ally McCoist became the first player to defend his title after winning the 1991/92 and 1992/93 titles with Rangers, before Thierry Henry repeated the feat with Arsenal. Messi and Ronaldo later joined the back-to-back list.
Romanian international Dudu Georgescu held the highest goal tally record (47) from 1977 until Messi hit 50 in 2011/12.
Who is the most successful winner per league?
La Liga is the most successful producer of European Golden Shoe winners with 15 titles in total from seven players, including six for Messi and three for Ronaldo.
The Premier League (six wins) comes in third on the list – thanks to Ian Rush, Kevin Phillips, Henry (twice), Ronaldo and Suarez – behind Portugal's Primeira Division on seven awards
Portuguese players are the most successful nationality, with eight wins spread across Eusebio, Ronaldo and Fernando Gomes.
Current Golden Shoe standings
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals | Coefficient | Points |
| 1 | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern Munich | 34 | 2 | 68 |
| 2 | Ciro Immobile | Lazio | 27 | 2 | 54 |
| 3 | Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | 26 | 2 | 52 |
| 4 | Ohi Omoijuanfo | Red Star Belgrade/Molde | 33 | 1.5 | 49.5 |
| 5 | Patrik Schick | Bayer Leverkusen | 24 | 2 | 48 |
| = | Kylian Mbappe | Paris Saint-Germain | 24 | 2 | 48 |
| 7 | Dusan Vlahovic | Juventus/Fiorentina | 23 | 2 | 46 |
| 8 | Mohamed Salah | Liverpool | 22 | 2 | 44 |
| 9 | Erling Haaland | Borussia Dortmund | 21 | 2 | 42 |
| = | Wissam Ben Yedder | Monaco | 21 | 2 | 42 |
