Suarez moves clear of Ronaldo in European Golden Shoe race

Liverpool attacker Luis Suarez has taken a two-goal lead over Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the European Golden Shoe, but Lionel Messi's fine form for Barcelona in recent weeks has seen last year's winner storm into the top five.

Suarez netted a hat-trick in his side's 6-3 win over Cardiff at the weekend to take his tally for 2013-14 to 28 goals.

Elsewhere, Ronaldo scored once in Madrid's 4-3 defeat against Barcelona, while third-placed Diego Costa also found the net once as Atletico bagged the full three points against Betis.

Messi, meanwhile has climbed to fourth place following yet another hat-trick in Sunday's Clasico and the Argentine has now scored 21 times in La Liga.

Other notable performers this weekend were Red Bull Salzburg striker Alan, who scored a treble as his side were crowned Austrian champions and Madrid forward Karim Benzema, who netted twice against Barcelona.

Rank	Player	Country	Club	League	Weight	Goals	Points
1	Luis Suarez	URU	Liverpool	ENG	2	28 (+3)	56
2	C. Ronaldo	POR	Real Madrid	ESP	2	26 (+1)	52
3	Diego Costa	ESP	Atletico Madrid	ESP	2	23 (+1)	46
4	Lionel Messi	ARG	Barcelona	ESP	2	21 (+3)	42
5	J. Soriano	ESP	Salzburg	AUT	1.5	26 (+1)	39
6	Daniel Sturridge	ENG	Liverpool	ENG	2	19 (+1)	38
7	Z. Ibrahimovic	SWE	PSG	FRA	1.5	25	37.5
8	A. Finnbogason	ISL	Heerenveen	NED	1.5	24 (+1)	36
=	Alan	BRA	Salzburg	AUT	1.5	24 (+3)	36
10	Alexis Sanchez	CHI	Barcelona	ESP	2	17	34
=	Mario Mandzukic	CRO	Bayern Munich	GER	2	17	34
=	Karim Benzema	FRA	Real Madrid	ESP	2	17 (+2)	34

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 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.