Messi vs Ronaldo tied & History of Golden Shoe

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have drawn levelled with each other on 41 goals in La Liga over the weekend, breaking the previous record of 40 set by the Portuguese forward last season. Messi hit two as Barcelona came from behind to beat Levante 2-1 on Saturday, whilst in the earlier kick off, Ronaldo scored a header as Madrid won 3-1 at home to Sporting Gijon. Both players now lead the European Golden Shoe standing with 82 points. The duo are well clear of third-placed Robin van Persie, who scored a penalty on Wednesday as Arsenal defeated Wolves 3-0, and could go some way to reaching 30 goals for the season with the Gunners' hosting Wigan on Monday. In the Bundesliga, Mario Gomez and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar failed to net as Bayern Munich drew 0-0 with Mainz and Schalke went down 2-1 at home to regional rivals Dortmund. Wayne Rooney joined Huntelaar on 48 points, as the England international scored twice in Manchester United's resounding 4-0 win at home to Aston Villa. Burak Yilmaz meanwhile, was unable to get on the scoresheet as Trabzonspor drew 0-0 with Orduspor. All of the Serie A fixtures over the weekend were cancelled due to the tragic death of Piermario Morosini, which meant Zlatan Ibrahimovic stayed on 46 points along with Aleksandr Cekulajevs. Finally, Radamel Falcao entered the top 10 for the first time this season as he scored a second-half winner in Atletico Madrid's 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano.

Rank	Player	Country	Club	League	Weight	Goals	Points
1	L. Messi	ARG	Barcelona	ESP	2	41	82
=	C. Ronaldo	POR	Real Madrid	ESP	2	41	82
3	R. v Persie	NED	Arsenal	ENG	2	27	54
4	M. Gomez	GER	Bayern	GER	2	25	50
5	K. Huntelaar	NED	Schalke	GER	2	24	48
=	B. Yilmaz	TUR	Trabzonspor	TUR	1.5	32	48
=	W. Rooney	ENG	Man Utd	ENG	2	24	48
8	Ibrahimovic	SWE	AC Milan	ITA	2	23	46
=	A Cekulajevs	LVA	Trans*	EST	1	46	46
10	R. Falcao	COL	Ath. Madrid	ESP	1.5	22	44

* = league season finished

History of Golden Shoe

In 1967-68, French football magazine L'Equipe opted to hand out an award to the top goalscorer in all European leagues for his good performances during the season. Between 1968 and 1991, high profile names such as Eusebio, Gerd Muller, Ian Rush and Marco van Basten won the coveted trophy. However, the gap between big and small leagues started to grow in the early 90s and L'Equipedecided to make the competition unofficial after the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) issued a protest in 1991. Darko Pancev won the award that season with 34 goals, but the CFA claimed that a player had scored 40 goals in Cyprus that term. Adidas, sponsor of the awards, still handed out the trophy until 1996 before European Sports Magazine (with L'Equipe as a member) decided to make the title official again. ESM divided all European leagues in three groups according to strength, and attached to each group a quotient by which the number of goals is multiplied to obtain the player's rating. The European Golden Shoe was thus no longer necessarily handed to the top goalscorer, but to the player with the most points. The weightings are determined by the league's ranking on the Uefa coefficients, which in turn depend on the results of each league's clubs in European competition over the previous five seasons. Goals scored in the top five leagues according to the Uefa coefficients are multiplied by a factor of two, and goals scored in the leagues ranked six to 21 are multiplied by 1.5. Goals in all other leagues are all worth one single point. This measure has prevented players from so-called weaker leagues from winning the European Golden Shoe, since a goal scored in, for example, Armenia, Estonia or Azerbaijan, carries less weight than a goal scored in Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga or the Premier League. Players such as Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Forlan and Lionel Messi have won the European Golden Shoe in the past few seasons.

Footballer 'kills himself' after match-fixing ban

A South Korean footballer who was banned for life has taken his own life, police said Monday. However, it would be too early to detrmine how he died. It is the third suicide linked to the controversy that erupted last year. Lee Kyung-Hwan, 24, was Saturday found critically injured in front of an apartment building in the city of Incheon, west of Seoul, after apparently jumping off the building, a city police official told AFP. He was pronounced dead on his way to hospital, he said. The former midfielder played from 2009 to 2011 for Daejeon Citizen and Suwon Samsung Bluewings of the K-League until he received a life ban last year after admitting involvement in widespread match fixing. Prosecutors in 2011 charged 57 people - 46 current and former players and 11 criminal gang members and bookmakers - for fixing the results of 15 matches in 2010. The players were charged with fixing games after taking bribes from betting rings. All of them, including Lee, were banned for life by the country s football association. Lee received three years  probation in court. Last October, Lee Soo-Cheol, a former coach of the military football club was found dead in an apparent suicide after being sentenced to two years in prison with probation for his involvement in match fixing. In May, Jeong Jong-Kwan, a 29-year-old midfielder for a third-division professional league team, committed suicide at a hotel in Seoul while being investigated over the scandal.

Italien footballer dies on pitch after Collapsing on pitch

 Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini is carried on a stretcher after he suffered a suspected heart-attack during a second league match against Pescara on April 14, 2012. The 31-year-old player has died after he collapsed suddenly on the pitch during the game.   

 Piermario Morosini was on loan from the Serie A side Udinese

 ROME: Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini has died after suffering a suspected heart-attack during an Italian second division match at Pescara on Saturday, Italian media reported. The 25-year-old collapsed suddenly in the first half of the game, leading to the match being abandoned. He was treated on the pitch before being taken away by ambulance to the Civile Santo Spirito hospital in Pescara. But he was later pronounced dead. Morosini had been conscious when put in the ambulance but his condition was said to be serious when he arrived at hospital. "He looked me in the eyes when he entered the vehicle," Pescara chief executive Danilo Iannascoli told Sky television. "Morosini fell, he tried to get back up but fell again. Our masseur realised what was happening." Iannascoli also said the ambulance was blocked from coming onto the pitch due to a vehicle parked in front of an exit. Italian press were alerted to Morosini's death initially by an "explosion of shouts and tears" from his teammates who had come to the hospital, news agency ANSA said. Police started to usher the press away but the official confirmation followed shortly afterwards. Morosini's death comes just under a month after Bolton Wanderers' midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed after suffering a cardiac arrest during his side's FA Cup quarter-final match against Tottenham Hotspur. All Seria A Matches have been Called for Respect

Bangladesh Will Tour Pakistan at Month End

Bangladesh's matches will be played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore

International cricket is set to return to Pakistan after three years, with Bangladesh formally confirming to the PCB that they will play one ODI and one Twenty20 International there later this month. There has been no cricket between two Full Member nations in Pakistan since the attack on the Sri Lanka team in March 2009.The ODI is scheduled for April 29 and the T20I for April 30. Both matches will be played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.The ICC has asked the the PCB to provide a comprehensive security plan for consideration, following which its Anti-Corruption and Security Unit will commission a localised risk assessment to determine whether its officials and staff are appropriately protected by the proposed security plan, before any further decision is taken in relation to their appointment.Last month, the ICC had introduced a "special dispensation" to be made only in "exceptional circumstances" in order to ensure that bilateral series take place even if the ruling body has determined it "unsafe" to appoint its officials for such series. This would allow such series to be manned by "non-neutral match officials", a departure from the ICC's Standard Playing Conditions, pending permission from its executive board.Sunday's announcement follows lengthy negotiations between the two boards over the terms of the tour, and the strings attached to it. At times it looked as though the tour would be a non-starter but on Sunday it was welcomed by both sides."The public of Pakistan have been deprived of cricket and we felt that we needed to support them," BCB president Mustafa Kamal said. "The reception we received when we toured Lahore and Karachi on our security visit was overwhelming."Zaka Ashraf, PCB Chairmen thanked the BCB and the Bangladesh government for their support for the tour.There had been several itineraries proposed for the tour, including a three-match ODI series and a series of two ODIs and one Twenty20 international. Karachi and Rawalpindi were the other possible venues but ESPNcricinfo understands they were dropped on security grounds.The tour will come a little more than three years after masked terrorists attacked the Sri Lanka team bus and a van carrying ICC officials to Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, on what would have been the third day of the second Test of that tour.

IPL decline in Indian crowds

The Hindustan Times Thursday said that Tam Media Research, which is the country s top rating agency, has confirmed an initial lack of interest in the fifth season. The fall for this year's IPL, which runs from April 4-May 27, mirrors the decline in Indian crowds.  Television ratings for the first six games of the Indian Premier League season are 19 per cent down on last year, local media has reported. Cumulative reach, which is the number of people who watch a program for at least a minute, has gone down by 12 per cent from 101 million last year to 90 million this year. The fall for this year s IPL, which runs from April 4-May 27, mirrors the decline in Indian crowds last year, blamed on viewer fatigue owing to the preceding World Cup.

Re-match Amir Khan v Lamont Peterson, May 19 2012

The 25-year-old Englishman will face Peterson on May 19 in Las Vegas for the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association light-welterweight titles after losing them in controversial manner to the American last December in Washington. Peterson, 28, won 113-112 on two judges  scorecards while the other had Khan a 115-110 winner. Without the deductions, Khan would have kept the titles.

Bangladesh cricket board perplexing

BCB spokesperson has said that no decision has been made regarding cricket team’s tour to Pakistan. While rejecting the news that that Bangladesh cricket team will not tour Pakistan which was scheduled to be held on April 16-26, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) spokesperson said that no decision has been made yet. However, Pakistan Cricket Board official commenting on the news, said that PCB had not received any official information regarding the tour from the BCB.

Marathon at North Pole

At least forty athletes took part in a marathon event at the North Pole. Forty athletes gathered at the North Pole on Friday to run a full marathon distance of 42.195 kms (26 miles 385 yards) in temperatures of -26 degrees Celsius. The athletes ran around a research station at the pole and had to remain in plain view of observers to make sure they did not fall or freeze. The course was marked out on the ice with flags. Faces had to be protected from the cold with masks.