Top 5 contenders for European Golden Shoe

3. Diego Costa (Atletico Madrid)

Atletico Madrid have emerged as the surprise package in La Liga and have acquitted themselves very well against the top two already. And the man leading the charge is Diego Costa, who has been on a phenomenal run of form, since the start of the season. The Brazil born forward, who has declared his intentions to play for Spain, has been a revelation thus far and already has 19 League goals this campaign, more than twice as much as Messi and only three behind Luis Suarez, who is leading the charts with 22.

The 25-year-old forward has sprung from out of nowhere and now stands a legitimate chance of breaking the Messi-Ronaldo hegemony at the top of the goal scoring charts, not just in Spain, but in Europe as well. Prior to this season, he had only hit double digits once in his seven previous League campaigns and even that was last season, when he finished with 10. He has almost doubled his tally from last season and, with half a season to go, he looks like he might well finish with over 30 League goals this season. That is quite an achievement, for someone who had just over 50 career League goals at the start of this campaign.