Mbappe adds a little lustre to Real season with Golden Shoe

MADRID: Real Madrid may have won no trophies, but their French Galactico Kylian Mbappe ended his first season in Spain by collecting two individual scoring awards: the European Golden Shoe and the award for top scorer in La Liga.

Mbappe scored twice in Real Madrid´s final league game on Saturday to overtake Viktor Gyokeres, whose league season at Sporting Lisbon ended the previous week, at the top of the weighted table which counts only league goals.

Mbappe ended with 31 league goals as he became the third Real Madrid player to win the award, after Mexicans Hugo Sanchez (1989-1990) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2010-2011, 2013-2014, 2014-2015).

The last Frenchman to collect the Golden Shoe was Thierry Henry, who won it in 2004 and 2005 with Arsenal. Mbappe could have been caught on Sunday, while he was in Monaco watching the Formula One Grand Prix.

Mohammed Salah, who needed a hat-trick in English champions Liverpool´s last league game, scored once to finish third with 29 goals.

Barcelona´s Robert Lewandowski, already certain to finish ahead of Real Madrid in the race for the Spanish league title, scored twice at Bilbao. He totalled 27 goals, for fourth place in Europe and second in the Pichichi, the award for the top scorer in La Liga. The Pole won the Golden Shoe twice with Bayern and claimed the Pichichi in 2023.