The Golden Shoe and Espadrille

Want to know who the hottest strikers are in Europe and England? Then look no further!

We all love goals and those who know how to find the back of the net, but who is really the best at it? Is it the player who scores the most, or the striker that always seems to pop up and score in the important matches? Well here at Soccer AM we think the players with the best goals to games ratio should be recognised, which is why every week for the remainder of the season we will be bringing you the Golden Shoe and Golden Espadrille on the website. The Golden Shoe takes into account all the players in the top four tiers of the English game while The Espadrille will be focusing on the top forwards from Italy's Serie A, Spain's Primera Division and of course our very own Premier League. To qualify, players must have played in at least half of their side's matches this season and only league goals count.

The Golden Shoe

Any rumours that Cristiano Ronaldo's golden touch in front of goal had deserted him were quickly quashed this weekend after the Manchester Untied winger bagged himself another two goals to remain top of the Golden Shoe table. Ronnie's brace against Newcastle means he has now netted an incredible 21 times in just 23 appearances this season, giving him a ratio of 0.91 goals a game, better than any striker in the land. And he isn't even a striker! The big mover this week though was Liverpool's Fernando Torres, who helped himself to his first Premier League hat-trick of the season against Middlesbrough in a 3-2 win for Rafa Benitez's men. It takes the Spain international's league tally to 15 goals in his debut Premier League season. The only other notable scorers from this week's top 10 were Peterborough's Aaron McLean, who put the icing on the cake with the third goal in Posh's 3-0 win away to Macclesfield. And Roman Bednar, whose 10th goal of the season couldn't prevent West Brom losing 2-1 to Hull at the Hawthorns.

PLAYER	TEAM	GOALS	GAMES	RATIO
Cristiano Ronaldo	Man Utd	21	23	0.91
Jack Lester	Chesterfield	23	29	0.79
Emmanuel Adebayor	Arsenal	19	25	0.76
Aaron McLean	Peterborough	23	31	0.74
Kevin Phillips	West Brom	16	23	0.70
Fernando Torres	Liverpool	15	23	0.65
Scott McGleish	Wycombe	20	34	0.59
Roman Bednar	West Brom	13	24	0.56
Yakubu Ayegbeni	Everton	10	18	0.56
Michael Boulding	Mansfield	16	28	0.55

*Accurate as of 25/02/08

The Golden Espadrille

Commentators across the globe are fast running out of superlatives to describe Sevilla's Luis Fabiano as he continued his unbelievable goal scoring record. The Brazilian hitman - whose family were robbed at gun point at their home last Friday - scored twice as Sevilla thrashed Real Zaragoza 5-0, taking his ratio to more than a goal a game. That win moves Sevilla up two places to fifth in La Liga as they continue to close in on the top four after an indifferent start to the season. The big story in Spain though concerned Real Madrid whose nine point lead has been cut down to just two after their shock defeat to Getafe. That result coupled with Barcelona's 5-1 win at home to Levante - including a Samuel Eto'o hat-trick - means La Liga is as tight as ever. Elsewhere Genoa have taken six points off Udinese this season and they have only one man to thank, Marco Borriello. The striker scored his second hat-trick of the season against the Zebrette as Genoa ran out 5-2 winners. It takes Borriello's tally to 15 for the season and moves him up five places into fourth in the race for the Golden Espadrille.

PLAYER	TEAM	GOALS	GAMES	RATIO
Luis Fabiano	Sevilla	19	18	1.05
Cristiano Ronaldo	Man Utd	21	23	0.91
Emmanuel Adebayor	Arsenal	19	25	0.76
Marco Borriello	Genoa	15	20	0.75
Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Inter Milan	14	20	0.70
Adrian Mutu	Fiorentina	14	20	0.70
David Trezeguet	Juventus	15	23	0.65
Fernando Torres	Liverpool	15	23	0.65
Francesco Totti	Roma	10	16	0.63
Kahveci Nihat	Villarreal	13	21	0.62

*Accurate as of 25/02/08