Lionel Messi receives 5th Golden Shoe award for Europe’s top scorer

FC Barcelona’s forward Lionel Messi during their La Liga soccer match between Levante UD and FC Barcelona at Ciutat de Valencia stadium in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2018.(AP Photo/Jose Miguel Fernandez de Velasco)

BARCELONA, Spain — Lionel Messi received his record fifth Golden Shoe award on Tuesday for leading all of Europe’s soccer leagues in scoring last season.

Messi’s fifth win breaks the tie he had with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Messi scored 34 goals in the Spanish league last season to lead Barcelona to the title. Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah was the second leading scorer of Europe’s domestic leagues with 32 goals in England.

Messi also won the award in 2009-10 (34 goals), 2011-12 (50), 2012-13 (46) and 2016-17 (37).

The Argentina forward currently leads Europe’s top leagues with 14 goals this season.

“I love football, but when I started I didn’t expect all this. My dream was to be a professional player,” Messi said. “This is thanks to the hard work and effort I have put in, and above all to my teammates. I have the best players in the world at their positions playing beside me.”

The 31-year-old Messi is Barcelona’s all-time leading scorer. The club credits him with 572 goals in 655 games.

The Golden Shoe is awarded by European Sports Media, an association of European sports newspapers and magazines.