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After the end of the major European league competitions, the most productive players of the 2004/05 season were revealed - they became the leaders of the London "Arsenal" attack, Frenchman Thierry Henry and Uruguayan forward Diego Forlanas from "Villareal", both scoring 25 goals.
In the ESM (European Football Magazines) "Golden Shoe" rankings, goals scored in national championships are counted, and their number is multiplied by the league coefficient, so both players, each scoring 25 goals in the English and Spanish championships, respectively, earned 50 points and shared first place.
Last summer, 26-year-old D. Forlanas moved from "Man Utd" to Spain, as if he had been reborn and forgotten the three seasons in England, during which he managed to score only 10 times, played all 38 matches in "La Liga" and with 25 goals surpassed "Barcelona" attack leader Samuel Eto'o on the last day.
Meanwhile, T. Henry, the defending owner of the "Golden Shoe", did not play as impressively as he did last year when "Arsenal", unbeaten, became the champion and the Frenchman scored even 30 goals. However, his 25 precise strikes in 32 matches (he did not play in the last month due to injury) were enough for him to become the most productive player in the English "Premier" league for the second consecutive year.
Third place in the most productive list was shared by three players: player C. Lucarelli of "Livorno" with the most goals in "Serie A", M. Mintal from "Nürnberg" being the most productive in the Bundesliga, and S. Eto'o remaining second in Spain.
A very successful season was for the "Trabzonspor" team, who secured a spot in the Champions League, and their forward F. Tekke scored as many as 31 times, but due to a lower coefficient in the Turkish league, he took sixth place.
Seventh was A. Gilardino, the leader of the "Parma" team who scored 23 times in Italy, followed by R. Oliveira from "Betis" and R. Makaay from "Bayern" who each scored 22 times, and 29 goals from D. Kuijt from "Feyenoord" in the top ten.
ESM "Golden Shoe" rankings (Place, player, team - country, goals, league coefficient, points) 1-2. Diego Forlán ("Villarreal" - Spain) 25 2 50 Thierry Henry ("Arsenal" - England) 25 2 50 3-5. Cristiano Lucarelli ("Livorno" - Italy) 24 2 48 Samuel Eto'o ("Barcelona" - Spain) 24 2 48 Marek Mintal ("Nürnberg" - Germany) 24 2 48 6. Fatih Tekke ("Trabzonspor" - Turkey) 31 1.5 46.5 7. Alberto Gilardino ("Parma" - Italy) 23 2 44 8-9. Ricardo Oliveira ("Betis" - Spain) 22 2 44 Roy Makaay ("Bayern" - Germany) 22 2 44 10. Dirk Kuyt ("Feyenoord" - Netherlands) 29 1.5 43.5 11-13. Ronaldo ("Real" - Spain) 21 2 42 Vincenzo Montella ("Roma" - Italy) 21 2 42 Andrew Johnson ("Crystal Palace" - England) 21 2 42 14. Martin Kamburov ("Lokomotiv Plovdiv" - Bulgaria) 27 1.5 40.5 15-17. Luca Toni ("Palermo" - Italy) 20 2 40 Dimitar Berbatov ("Bayer" - Germany) 20 2 40 Alexander Frei ("Rennes" - France) 20 2 40 18. Christian Giménez ("Basel" - Switzerland) 26 1.5 39 19. Mirko Vucinic ("Lecce" - Italy) 19 2 38 20. Liedson ("Sporting" - Portugal) 25 1.5 37.5
