Striker of the month - September: The nominees

Wayne Rooney – Manchester United

Key stats - Minutes played: 444 Goals: 5 Assists: 2

Where before the season began, Rooney was rocking the boat at Old Trafford, it is now him who is keeping it from falling apart. With David Moyes’s brave adventures to understand his players by putting them on the pitch in different combinations every week failing miserably, it has been up to the English star to maintain respectability. A heartening sign for the United fans will be the ability to score from direct free-kicks that Rooney has developed, getting them on target at roughly the same rate that Ronaldo used to. They certainly have helped him rack up the goals, and a spot in our list of nominees.

Cristiano Ronaldo – Real Madrid

Key stats - Minutes played: 540 Goals: 9 Assists: 1

In spite of no longer being the costliest player in the world, Ronaldo has simply gone about business as usual to re-establish why he is the undisputed star at Real. A barrage of goals in September, including a hat-trick against Galatasaray in the Champions League, have boosted his quest for the Golden Boot, and even the Golden Ball, perhaps, which is no longer in Messi’s hand. The extent of Ancelotti’s dependence on the Portuguese star comes to light when we see that Ronaldo scored in every game of September, except for the one against Atletico. It was when Real recorded their opening loss of the season, losing the derby 1 – 0.

Lionel Messi – Barcelona

Key stats - Minutes played: 470 Goals: 9 Assists: 2

Continuing the cat and mouse game with Ronaldo, Messi matched Ronaldo in virtually every aspect of the game in September. Scoring the same absurdly large number of goals as the Real Madrid man, Messi got one assist higher, in spite of spending lesser time on the pitch. A hat-trick in the Champions League had to be scored as well, with Ajax being the hapless victims. Also, Messi scored in all the games he played in September, except one, where his team still managed a 4-0 victory.

The race for top honours is on, and as fans of football, we are loving it!

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