Adrián thrilled to win adidas Golden Boot

Adrián López had double reason to celebrate as he claimed the adidas Golden Boot award to go with his UEFA European Under-21 Championship winners' medal with Spain.

Although the striker did not manage to score in Saturday's Aarhus final, Adrián's five goals were enough to take the honour as the top marksman in Denmark.

Receiving his award, No7 Adrián said the Spain team had proved they had goals to go with their passing game. "It was suggested after the first game that we didn't have goals in the team but we never thought that – even if it was difficult against England on the first day for things to go as we wanted.

"The team have been scoring since then, we won one game easily [3-0 against Ukraine] and we're all delighted," the 23-year-old added. "Of course I'm personally very happy with this award. You never think that things can turn out this well. It's a dream, but you don't think it will happen."

Switzerland forward Admir Mehmedi collected the Silver Boot after coming second in the rankings on three goals, and although Juan Mata was level with four other players on two strikes, the Spain playmaker earned the Bronze Boot by virtue of his two assists.

Ander Herrera, scorer of Spain's opener in the 2-0 final victory over Switzerland, was one of those players on two goals. The others were Belarus forward Andrei Voronkov, Czech Republic captain Bořek Dočkal and Danny Welbeck of England.

As impressive as Adrián's tally was, it fell short of the record for the most goals scored at a U21 finals – Marcus Berg having hit seven two years ago for Sweden on home soil.

2011 Under-21 finals top scorers
Adrián López, Spain – 5
Admir Mehmedi, Switzerland – 3
Juan Mata, Spain – 2
Ander Herrera, Spain – 2
Danny Welbeck, England – 2
Andrei Voronkov, Belarus – 2
Bořek Dočkal, Czech Republic – 2

Assists and then minutes played (with the player boasting the better goals to minutes on the pitch ratio taking precedence) were used to separate players with the same goal totals.

Previous top scorers*
2009: Marcus Berg, Sweden – 7
2007: Maceo Rigters, Netherlands – 4
2006: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Netherlands – 4
2004: Alberto Gilardino, Italy – 4
2002: Massimo Maccarone, Italy – 3
2000: Andrea Pirlo, Italy – 3

* Current format