Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe wins European Golden Shoe: Decoding stats
What's the story
Kylian Mbappe has been awarded the prestigious European Golden Shoe for the first time in his career.
The French international clinched the title after scoring a brace in Real Madrid's 2-0 victory over Real Sociedad on Saturday.
The goals took his total to 31 league goals in his debut season with the Spanish club, also winning him La Liga's top scorer award.
Here's more.
Competition
Mbappe outshines competitors in European Golden Shoe race
Mbappe's stellar performance in Real Madrid's last game of the season helped him top the rankings.
He was ahead of Sporting Lisbon striker Victor Gyokeres (39 goals) and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah (29 goals).
Despite Gyokeres scoring eight more league goals than Mbappe, he finished second due to a weighted-points based system that decides the rankings.
Meanwhile, Harry Kane, who won the Bundesliga top-scorer award with 26 goals, was behind Salah and Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski (27 goals in La Liga).
Scoring system
Points system for European Golden Shoe explained
The points system for the European Golden Shoe awards two points for goals scored in Europe's top five leagues: Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1.
Goals from players in leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's coefficient, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, are worth 1.5 points.
This is why Gyokeres finished second despite scoring more league goals than Mbappe.
Near miss
Salah falls short in final match
Mohamed Salah needed a hat-trick in Liverpool's last Premier League match against Crystal Palace to share the prize with Mbappe.
However, he only managed to score once in a 1-1 draw.
This result meant that Salah ended up missing out on the European Golden Shoe title by just four points.
However, Salah won the Premier League Golden Boot award in addition to winning the Playmaker award as well.
Historical win
Mbappe joins elite club of Real Madrid players
With this victory, Mbappe becomes the third player from Real Madrid to win the European Golden Shoe.
He follows in the footsteps of Hugo Sanchez (1989-90) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2010-11, 2013-14, and 2014-15).
The Frenchman's achievement is a testament to his incredible talent and hard work on the field.
Numbers
Breaking down Mbappe's La Liga season in numbers
Mbappe played 34 games in La Liga, scoring 31 goals and making 3 assists.
As per Squawka Comparison Matrix (data by Opta), Mbappe clocked 122 shots (excluding blocks) out of which 85 were on target. 9 of his goals were from the penalty spot. He struck the woodwork 4 times.
Mbappe created 51 chances and owned a passing accuracy of 85.28%. He completed 63 lay-offs and had 363 touches in the opposition box.
Information
Lewandowski finishes behind Mbappe in La Liga
As mentioned, Lewandowski finished as La Liga's 2nd best goal-scorer with 27 goals from 34 matches. He completed 100 goals for Barcelona in all competitions in matchweek 38.