Mbappé overtakes Salah as Golden Shoe race gears up for a photo finish

It’s been a few years since we last saw such a close battle to secure the Golden Shoe - the award given by European Sports Magazines to the top goalscorer in Europe.

Kylian Mbappé fell agonizingly short, despite finding the target twice in this afternoon’s victory over Real Sociedad. The French forward stormed into contention scoring in all of Madrid’s last five games - bagging nine goals to take his personal tally for the season to 31 and finish with a Golden Shoe score of 62.

In doing so, he overtakes a player who just a few weeks ago topped the list, was the big favorite to win but whose fortunes in front of goal have been going in the opposite direction. Mohamed Salah has scored just once in eight games - in the 5-1 win over Spurs on April 27.

Salah has slipped down to third with 28 goals, giving him a score of 56. He could still overtake Mbappé - but would need to score at least four goals in Liverpool’s final game of the campaign, against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Barring any huge surprises - like Isak netting six or more goals against Everton, the Egyptian should finish the season as the Premier League’s top scorer - it will be the fourth time he has achieved the feat.

Sporting’s goal scoring Swede could equal Larsson

Until this weekend, Sporting Clube’s Viktor Gyökeres topped the list with 39 goals, and a Golden Shoe score of 58.5 (Primeira Liga goals have a coefficient of 1.5 compared to goals scored in LaLiga, the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 which have a value of 2).

Out of the 34 league games that Sporting Clube have played this season, Gyökeres only failed to find the net in 11 of them. The Swede has five hat tricks and five braces under his belt and will collect his first Golden Shoe award and the club’s third as long as Mo Salah doesn’t overtake him at Anfield on Sunday.

Only one Swedish player has won the Golden Shoe - Henrik Larsson, who collected the award in 2000–01 during his time at Celtic.

Harry Kane is out of the race, and sat fourth in the standings with 52 points (26 goals for Bayern).

Several players could move up the standings when the Premier League and LaLiga campaigns conclude this weekend. Apart from Salah, Erling Haaland, Alexander Isak, Mateo Retegui, Robert Lewandowski and Ante Budimir will all have one last chance to improve their respective positions.

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