Aduriz finishes UEFA Europa League top scorer
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
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Aritz Aduriz, the 35-year-old Athletic Club and Spain forward, has become the oldest ever top scorer of a single season in the UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League.
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Aritz Aduriz has capped the most productive campaign of his 19-year career by becoming the oldest ever top scorer of a single season in the UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League.
The 35-year-old netted ten goals in 11 appearances during Athletic Club's run to the quarter-finals, sufficient to eclipse the likes of Cédric Bakambu, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Kevin Gameiro to take the top scorer prize.
He is the oldest ever recipient of the award, bettering Alan Shearer's 2004/05 mark: the ex-England striker was nearing his 34th birthday by the end of Newcastle's campaign that term.
It caps an incredible season for the veteran, who has surpassed 30 club goals and 50 games for the first time in his career (his previous highs of 26/47 came last term).
Aduriz has also returned to the international fold and in March he collected his second cap more than five years after his first, marking the occasion with a goal. On Tuesday he was named in the holders' UEFA EURO 2016 squad.
The only serious threat to Aduriz's lead before tonight's final was from Gameiro, who needed a hat-trick for Sevilla in Basel to equal his tally. The Frenchman got just one of those, but has climbed to joint-third in the all-time UEFA Europa League rankings.
ALL THE FACTS AND FIGURES FROM THE 2015/16 SEASON
2015/16 top scorers
10 Aritz Aduriz (Athletic Club)
9 Cédric Bakambu (Villarreal)
8 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Dortmund)
8 Kevin Gameiro (Sevilla)
6 Raúl Bobadilla (Augsburg)
6 Erik Lamela (Tottenham)
2015/16 top assists
6 Denis Suárez (Villarreal)
5 Bořek Dočkal (Sparta Praha)
4 Five players
Previous UEFA Europa League season top scorers
2014/15: 8 Alan (Salzburg), Romelu Lukaku (Everton)
2013/14: 8 Jonathan Soriano (Salzburg)
2012/13: 8 Libor Kozák (Lazio)
2011/12: 12 Radamel Falcao (Atlético Madrid)
2010/11: 17 Radamel Falcao (Porto)
2009/10: 9 Óscar Cardozo (Benfica), Claudio Pizarro (Werder Bremen)
UEFA Europa League all-time top scorers
30 Radamel Falcao (Porto, Atlético Madrid)
20 Óscar Cardozo (Benfica)
17 Kevin Gameiro (Sevilla, Paris, Strasbourg)
16 Fernando Llorente (Athletic Club, Juventus)
16 Giuseppe Rossi (Parma, Villarreal, Fiorentina)
UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League all-time top scorers
31 Henrik Larsson (Feyenoord, Celtic, Helsingborg)
30 Radamel Falcao (Porto, Atlético Madrid)
29 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Heerenveen, Ajax, Schalke)
29 Dieter Müller (Köln, Stuttgart, Bordeaux)
25 Alessandro Altobelli (Internazionale Milano, Juventus)
*All statistics are for group stage onwards. Qualifying rounds and play-offs are discounted.