Robert Lewandowski wins Europe’s Golden Shoe award

Now that all of Europe’s main five top flights have concluded their seasons, Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski has been officially crowned Europe’s Golden Shoe winner. He did so by scoring a record-breaking 41 goals in the Bundesliga en route to Bayern’s ninth consecutive league title. Even more impressively, the Polish ace did so having missed a total of four Bundesliga matches during a crucial stage of the ruckrunde in the Bundesliga due to his knee injury and he had also ben entirely rested in Bayern’s 2-1 hinrunde win over FC Koln back in October. During his injury layover, he also missed both of Bayern’s Champions League quarter-final’s legs against Paris Saint-Germain.

This time around, Lewandowski won the Golden Shoe by miles. He beat out Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Juventus’s Cristiano Ronaldo, PSG’s Kylian Mbappe, and fellow Bundesliga rivals Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund) and Andre Silva (Eintracht Frankfurt). In addition to breaking Gerd Muller’s single season Bundesliga record, Lewandowski becomes the first Bundesliga striker to win the Golden Shoe since the aforementioned legend did so for a second time back in the 1971/72 season for Bayern.

The top 20 finishers, via Transfermarkt:

Lewandowski came very close to winning the Golden Shoe last season, but he was narrowly edged out by Lazio’s Ciro Immobile, who scored 36 goals in Serie A. Lewandowski scored 34 goals in the league last season, though he completed the treble with Bayern as the leading scorer in the Bundesliga, Champions League, and DFB-Pokal and more than likely would’ve won France Football’s Ballon d’Or had it not been scrapped altogether due to Ligue 1 not being able to complete their season. Immobile was also largely aided in edging out Lewandowski by the amount of penalties he took and converted. He [Lewandowski] had also played six less games than Immobile last season and, by default, would’ve at least played four less since the Serie A season is 38 matches vs. the Bundesliga’s 34.

The moment Lewandowski made Bundesliga history: