Cristiano Ronaldo denied chance to beat Lazio’s Ciro Immobile to European Golden Shoe award after being LEFT OUT of Juventus squad to face Roma as Maurizio Sarri rests star forward before Champions League resumes
- Cristiano Ronaldo will not be winning this year’s European Golden Shoe award
- Lazio’s Ciro Immobile is in pole position to win it with 35 league goals this term
- Ronaldo was trailing by four goals but has been left out of final game with Roma
- Maurizio Sarri rested his star man with one eye on next week’s clash with Lyon
Cristiano Ronaldo has been denied the chance to beat Lazio striker Ciro Immobile to the European Golden Shoe award after being omitted from Juventus’ squad for their final Serie A game of the season.
Maurizio Sarri opted to rest Portuguese star Ronaldo for Saturday night’s clash with Roma with one eye on their Champions League campaign, which resumes on Friday against Lyon.
Ronaldo was already considered a longshot for the award, trailing Immobile by four goals in the race, but will now miss out on claiming the gong for certain.
Cristiano Ronaldo will not win the European Golden Shoe after being left out for Roma clash
Lazio’s Ciro Immobile, who has four more goals than Ronaldo, is in pole position to win award
The award – which Ronaldo has previously won four times – only counts league goals and multiplies the goal tallies by a coefficient based on the relative strength of that league to its European counterparts.
In the case of Europe’s major leagues, that means multiplying by a factor of two.
Immobile has scored 35 times in 36 league games this season and leads the charts, one in front of Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski and five ahead of Ronaldo who is in third.
The 35-year-old has played an integral role in Juventus winning their ninth successive Scudetto, scoring 31 times in Serie A this term, but will not get his hands on this particular personal honour this year which looks set to go to the prolific Immobile.
Sarri confirmed on Friday he would be resting players for their final game of the season as Juventus turn their attentions to Champions League glory.
The Juve boss said Ronaldo is one of the players who has played the most and wants him to be fit and ready for when they take on Lyon in the second leg of their quarter-final tie next week.
The Serie A champions will need to overturn a one-goal deficit when Lyon travel to Turin if they are to progress any further in the competition.
Maurizio Sarri said he would rest players and has left Ronaldo out with one eye on Lyon clash
Juventus go into next week’s Champions League quarter-final with Lyon trailing by one goal