Guess who was the top UEFA competition scorer of 2017?
Friday, December 8, 2017
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He was eclipsed by Ada Hegerberg in 2016, but Cristiano Ronaldo has taken the prize as the leading scorer in all UEFA competition matches for this year: see who he beat to the title.
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He was outscored in UEFA competition in 2016 by Ada Hegerberg, but Cristiano Ronaldo came out on top in this year's chart.
In the calendar year just ending, Ronaldo managed 19 UEFA Champions League goals for Real Madrid in addition to eight in European Qualifiers for Portugal. Hegerberg, meanwhile, missed out on the top five for 2017 but is coming into form, having scored 13 goals in the first four matches of Lyon's UEFA Women's Champions League title defence, already just one off the seasonal record.
The closest to matching Ronaldo was futsal's Halim Selmanaj. The 25-year-old struck a competition-leading 12 times in the UEFA Futsal Cup for Kosovo's Liburn, while in the colours of Albania he netted nine in UEFA Futsal EURO 2018 qualifying, the joint-top tally.
Hegerberg is not even the leading female in the latest rankings, eclipsed by Barcelona prospect Claudia Pina who, aged 16, has plundered 16 goals for Spain in this year's Women's U17 EURO games, including two in the 2017 finals (when she was still 15) and 11 in their three qualifying round fixtures this season. She was the only player to score seven in a single UEFA match this year, in the 22-0 defeat of Montenegro.
Who makes your Team of the Year?
Top scorers in UEFA competitions in 2017
27: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid and Portugal) – 19 UCL, 8 EQ
21: Halim Selmanaj (Liburn and Albania) – 12 FutCup, 9 FEURO
16: Claudia Pina (Spain) – 16 WU17
15: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern München and Poland) – 6 UCL, 9 EQ
14: Ivan Ignatev (Krasnodar and Russia) – 1 UEL, 10 UYL, 3 U19
14: Michael Seidler (Record Bielsko-Biała and Czech Republic) – 9 FutCup, 5 FEURO
13: Dani Gómez (Real Madrid and Spain) – 10 UYL, 3 U19
13: Ada Hegerberg (Lyon) – 13 UWCL
13: André Silva (AC Milan and Portugal) – 8 UEL, 5 EQ
12: Cenk Tosun (Beşiktaş and Turkey) – 4 UCL 3 UEL 5 EQ
11: Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur and England) – 6 UCL, 5 EQ
11: Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United and Belgium) – 4 UCL, 1 SCup, 6 EQ
11: Kylian Mbappé (Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain and France) – 10 UCL, 1 EQ
11: Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund and England) – 4 UYL, 7 U17
11: Joëlle Smits (Netherlands) – 11 WU19
10: Jann-Fiete Arp (Germany) – 10 U17
10: Christian Eriksen (Tottenham Hotspur and Denmark) – 1 UCL, 1 UEL, 8 EQ
10: Fenna Kalma (Netherlands) – 10 WU19
10: Jordi Mboula (Barcelona, Monaco and Spain) – 8 UYL, 2 U19
Teams listed are only those for which the player scored in UEFA competition this year.
Key
EQ: European Qualifiers for 2018 FIFA World Cup
FEURO: UEFA Futsal EURO 2018 qualifying
FutCup: UEFA Futsal Cup
SCup: UEFA Super Cup
UCL: UEFA Champions League (including qualifying)
UEL: UEFA Europa League (including qualifying)
UWCL: UEFA Women's Champions League
UYL: UEFA Youth League
U19: UEFA European Under-19 Championship (including qualifying)
U17: UEFA European Under-17 Championship (including qualifying)
WU19: UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship (including qualifying)
WU17: UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship (including qualifying)