FIFA 17: Golden Boot winner if Europe's top goal scorers played in League 2

What’s the story?

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have both scored an incredible amount of goals over the past decade and together have won the European Golden Shoe award a combined nine times, in the last 10 years.

Some critics argue that these goal-scoring returns are because the two play for two of the biggest clubs in the world – FC Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively. These two clubs feature some of the best players in the world such as Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos, Neymar, Luis Suarez and Karim Benzema among others.

Many have wondered how Ronaldo and Messi would fare if they played for weaker teams, with much less potential to get assists. YouTuber Barfieboy decided to find out using FIFA 17’s Career Mode by putting all the best goalscorers of Europe in League 2 of England. We take a look at how the world’s best goal scorers performed in the lowest division of English football.

In case you didn’t know...

The Argentine ace was the top scorer in La Liga this season, with 45 goals and scooped the La Liga Golden Boot and European Golden Shoe for the year. He has scored 40+ goals in every season to date. Messi also has a 99-rated TOTY card with a pace rating of 97 in FIFA 17.

The heart of the matter

Aubameyang finished the season as the Golden Boot winner

Barfieboy first picked the top 25 players based on the Golden Shoe ranking for the last year and transferred them all to different teams. He then simulated the season to see which player finished the season with the most goals.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored 40 goals in 46 appearances for Borussia Dortmund in the 2016-2017 season, proved to be a wonderful signing for Barnet in FIFA 17 and topped the list of goal scorers with 22 goals in the season.

The most expensive signing in French football history, Edinson Cavani, was outstanding for Stevenage and ended the season with 21 goals in 2^nd place.

After a disappointing first season with AS Roma, in which Edin Deko scored only 10 goals in all competitions for the club, he became the first Roma player ever to reach 33 goals in a season and ended the campaign with a tally of 39 goals in all competitions. Playing for Blackpool in the simulation, Dzeko finished with a total of 20 goals for the team.

The Arsenal star netted 30 goals for Arsenal last season and recently became the top scorer for Chile when he scored the 38^th goal for his country. Alexis Sanchez, who is currently linked with a move away from London, joined Newport County in this simulation and finished the season with a tally of 20 goals.

Gonzalo Higuain finished with 19 goals for Portsmouth to round up the top 5 of the Golden Boot list. Luis Suarez put in a shift for Yeovil Town and netted 18 goals while, Cheltenham Town’s Robert Lewandowski ended the season with a decent total of 17 goals.

Rising stars like Romelu Lukaku, playing for Wycombe Wanderers, and Dele Ali of Leyton Orient also featured on the list with 18 and 17 goals respectively

Amazingly, Messi or Ronaldo do not even feature in the list of top 15 goal scorers for the season.

What’s next?

EA Sports’ next FIFA’s edition, FIFA 18, is set to be released worldwide on Friday, September 29.

Author’s take

If all the world’s top goal scorers played in League 2 of England, Aubameyang would win the Golden Boot award. This was a shocking result with both of the world’s best players not making the cut, which only shows that FIFA can be full of surprises!