football. Cristiano Ronaldo extends European Golden Shoe lead

The Portugal international netted once to move further clear, while Atletico Madrid attacker Diego Costa climbed to second spot

Cristiano Ronaldo has extended his lead in the European Golden Shoe rankings following his goal in Real Madrid's 5-0 La Liga win over Almeria.

The Portugal international has now scored an impressive 17 times in 14 league games and holds a six-point lead over his nearest rival.

Diego Costa, meanwhile, moved to second spot ahead of Nerijus Valskis as he netted once in Atletico Madrid's 7-0 thrashing of Getafe on Saturday evening.

Giuseppe Rossi failed to add to his tally at the weekend as Fiorentina were beaten 1-0 by Udinese, while Heerenveen striker Alfred Finnbogason and Olympiakos star Kostas Mitroglou did not score either.

The remaining players in the top 10 all weren't in action as their respective leagues have already come to an end.

Rank	Player	Country	Club	League	Weight	Goals	Points
1	C. Ronaldo	POR	Real Madrid	ESP	2	17 (+1)	34
2	Diego Costa	ESP	Atletico Madrid	ESP	2	14 (+1)	28
3	Nerijus Valskis *	LTU	Suduva	LTU	1	27	27
4	Frode Johnson *	NOR	Odds	NOR	1.5	16	24
5	Vladimir Voskoboinikov *	EST	Kalju Nomme	EST	1	23	23
6	Abderrazak Hamdallah *	MOR	Aalesund	NOR	1.5	15	22.5
7	Giuseppe Rossi	ITA	Fiorentina	ITA	2	11	22
=	Rimo Hunt *	EST	Levadia Tallinn	EST	1	22	22
9	Alfred Finnbogason	ISL	Heerenveen	NED	1.5	14	21
	Konstantinos Mitroglou	GRE	Olympiakos	GRE	1.5	14	21
=	Kamil Bilinski *	POL	Zalgiris	LTU	1	21	21
=	Evaldas Razulis *	LTU	Atlantas	LTU	1	21	21

History & How It Works

Players such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Diego Forlan have won the European Golden Shoe in the past few seasons, with the Argentina international as the latest winner of the award following his 46 goals in 2012-13.

Other noteworthy winners include the likes of Francesco Totti, Luca Toni, Ronaldo, Marco van Basten, Eusebio and Gerd Muller.

The weightings are determined by the league's ranking on the Uefa coefficients, which in turn depend on the results of each league's clubs in European competition over the previous five seasons. Goals scored in the top five leagues according to the Uefa coefficients are multiplied by a factor of two, and goals scored in the leagues ranked six to 21 are multiplied by 1.5. Goals in all other leagues are all worth one single point.

This measure has prevented players from so-called weaker leagues from winning the European Golden Shoe, since a goal scored in, for example, Armenia, Estonia or Azerbaijan, carries less weight than a goal scored in Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga or the Premier League.