Seven goals in two games have taken Lionel Messi clear at the top of the ESM Golden shoe rankings. The outrageous burst of scoring from the Barcelona forward has taken him to an astonishing 50 league goals for the season, five clear of Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

Messi scored all the goals in his side’s 4-0 win over Espanyol – a fitting farewell gift  to departing coach Pep Guardiola, who was in charge for the final time at Camp Nou. Ronaldo, who has scored 45 this season, five more than the record he set last season’s for the most goals in a league season in Spain, and yet he finds himself trailing the remarkable Messi by five goals.

Elsewhere in the top ten, there were two goals apiece for Schalke’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Arsenal’s Robin van Persie, while Heerenveen’s Bas Dost makes his first appearance in the upper echelons after scoring in back-to-back games.

POS PLAYER TEAM GOALS FACTOR PTS

1. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 50 x 2 = 100
2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 45 x 2 = 90
3. Robin van Persie (Arsenal) 30 x 2 = 60
4. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Schalke 04) 29 x 2 = 58
5. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan) 28 x 2 = 56
6. Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich) 26 x 2 = 52
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) 26 x 2 = 52
8. Bas Dost (Heerenveen) 32 x 1.5 = 48
Burak Yilmaz (Trabzonspor) 32 x 1.5 = 48
10. Edinson Cavani (Napoli) 23 x 2 = 46
Aleksandrs Cekulajevs (JK Trans Narva) 46 x 1 = 46
Radamel Falcao (Atlético Madrid) 23 x 2 = 46
Diego Milito (Internazionale) 23 x 2 = 46
14. Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero (Manchester City) 22 x 2 = 44
Papiss Demba Cissé (Freiburg/Newcastle United) 22 x 2 = 44
Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid) 22 x 2 = 44
Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund) 22 x 2 = 44
Antonio Di Natale (Udinese) 22 x 2 = 44
19. Seydou Doumbia (CSKA Moscow) 28 x 1.5 = 42
Olivier Giroud (Montpellier) 21 x 2 = 42
21. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) 20 x 2 = 40
22. Rodrigo Palacio (Genoa) 19 x 2 = 38
23. Luuk de Jong (FC Twente) 25 x 1.5 = 37.5
David Lafata (FK Jablonec) 25 x 1,5 = 37.5
Sanharib Malki (Roda Kerkrade) 25 x 1.5 = 37.5
26. Nikica Jelavic (Rangers/Everton) 14 x 1.5 + 8 x 2 = 37
27. ‘Nenê’ Anderson Luiz de Carvalho (Paris Saint-Germain) 18 x 2 = 36
Claudio Pizarro (Werder Bremen) 18 x 2 = 36
Lukas Podolski (Cologne) 18 x 2 = 36
Marco Reus (Borussia Mönchengladbach) 18 x 2 = 36
31. Alexander Frei (FC Basel) 23 x 1.5 = 34.5
Aleksandr Kerzhakov (Zenit St.Petersburg) 23 x 1.5 = 34.5
33. Clint Dempsey (Fulham) 17 x 2 = 34
Martin Harnik (Stuttgart) 17 x 2 = 34
Eden Hazard (Lille) 17 x 2 = 34
Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao) 17 x 2 = 34
Roberto Soldado (Valencia) 17 x 2 = 34
38. Jérémy Perbet (Mons) 22 x 1.5 = 33
Artjoms Rudnevs (Lech Poznán) 22 x 1.5 = 33
40. Emmanuel Adebayor (Tottenham Hotspur) 16 x 2 = 32
Demba Ba (Newcastle United) 16 x 2 = 32
Gérman Gustavo Denis (Atalanta) 16 x 2 = 32
Stefan Kießling (Bayer Leverkusen) 16 x 2 = 32
Fabrizio Miccoli (Palermo) 16 x 2 = 32
Aiyegbeni Yakubu (Blackburn Rovers) 16 x 2 = 32
46. Dries Mertens (PSV Eindhoven) 21 x 1.5 = 30.5
47. Sebastian Giovinco (Parma) 15 x 2 = 30
John Guidetti (Feyenoord) 20 x 1.5 = 30
Arouna Koné (Levante) 15 x 2 = 30
Lisandro López (Lyon) 15 x 2 = 30
Miguel Pérez Cuesta ‘Michu’ (Rayo Vallecano) 15 x 2 = 30
‘Raúl’ González Blanco (Schalke 04) 15 x 2 = 30
* Standings last updated 07/05/2012

**Rules

Only the leading five countries – Spain, Italy, Germany, France and England – in the UEFA rankings have two as their multiplier. This is to emphasise the difference in (international) performance level between clubs from those countries and those of other nations.A player cannot play first in a summer league (e.g. Norway) and then in a winter league (e.g. Spain) and combine the points totals for each season.