Belotti emerges as Messi's closest rival in the race for Europe's Golden Shoe
The Torino striker is second in the rankings behind Leo after a treble on Sunday
In Italy there’s a player who could beat Lionel Messi to the Golden Shoe: Andrea Belotti. He is 23, starts for the national team and is the star of Torino, ninth in the Serie A table.
In the game on Sunday in Turin, the ‘Gallo’ -- as he’s nicknamed -- helped his side come from a goal down to beat Palmero. After his side conceded first, Belotti went on to score a hat-trick in a 3-1 win.
Thanks to that treble, Belotti is now the outright top goal scorer in Italy. With 22 goals, he leads the way from Dzeko and Higuain, who both have 19. He has become synonymous with goals, scoring once every 90 minutes, including eight times with his head. Only Messi has better numbers than him in Europe's top leagues.
The ‘Gallo’ is proving to be worth somewhere near his 100 million euros release clause. In total, he’s now scored two hat-tricks (against Bologna and Palermo) and four braces (against Cagliari, Crotone, Fiorentina and Pescara).
However, he has missed three penalties, something he has to work on.
After this weekend’s games, Messi leads the Golden Shoe race with 46 points (23 goals in 23 games multiplied by two due to Spain's coeffecient), followed by Belotti with 44 points (22 goals in 24 games multiplied by two).
In third position is Borussia Dortmund’s Aubameyang (42 points, 21 goals), then PSG’s Cavani (40.5 puntos, 26 goals bit it the French league is only multiplied by 1.5) and then come Luis Suarez (FC Barcelona), Dzeko (Roma), Higuaín (Juventus), Lewandowski (Bayern Múnich) and Kane (Tottenham), all with 38 points.
