Battle for 2017’s top scorer goes the distance as time ebbs away for strikers

Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Edinson Cavani and Robert Lewandowski are level in the race to be top goalscorer, but Harry Kane can still overhaul them all

In terms of goalscoring exploits, Fernando Peyroteo’s achievement in 1938 used to be the benchmark. The grandnephew of António César de Vasconcelos Correia – the 93rd governor of Portuguese India – had arrived at Sporting Lisbon the previous summer after being spotted by scouts while he was growing up in Angola, and promptly scored an astonishing 69 goals in 33 appearances as part of the celebrated Cinco Violinos (Five Violins) forward line.

To put that figure into perspective, that meant Peyroteo became only the third man in history to pass the 60-goal mark in a calendar year, following in the footsteps of Hungary’s Imre Schlosser (64) in 1912 and Everton’s Dixie Dean (62) in 1927. Amazingly, he went on to repeat the feat eight years later, finding the net on 62 occasions in 32 appearances, including one match in which he recorded nine. “Fernando was a goalscoring machine,” declared the manager Cândido de Oliveira at the time.

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