It’s Christmas, and it means the leagues in Europe are more or less at their halfway line, which includes the race for the top scorer as well as the title. Michu is slightly ahead of the rest in England, Lionel Messi is miles ahead of the competition in Spain, Stephan El Shaarawy is having his breakout season, Stefan Kießling scores and flies under the radar while Zlatan Ibrahimovic is doing what’s expected of him.

English Premier League – Michu, Swansea, 13 Goals

There’s no doubt that the Spanish midfielder turned striker at Swansea is the signing of the season, arriving from Rayo Vallecano in Spain for a fee of £2 million. He’s in incredible form over the last five weeks, scoring 7 goals in his last 7 matches, including twice away against Arsenal and the equalizer against Manchester United. He had 15 goals last season for Rayo which was his first ever in the Spanish top flight.

Spanish La Liga – Lionel Messi, Barcelona, 26 Goals

As if it could be anyone else. Well, actually, it might have been Cristiano Ronaldo, but he’s fallen way behind in the scoring race, just as his team has in the title race, currently at third with 14 goals. The last time Messi hasn’t scored in a La Liga match was November 3. Since then? Six consecutive braces and another goal against Valladolid to end the year with 91 goals, and 13 in his last 7 matches, putting him at 195 goals in 231 matches for the side.

Italian Serie A – Stephan El Shaarawy, AC Milan, 14 Goals

After a few glimpses of brilliance last season, the Pharaoh has taken full advantage of the mass exodus from AC Milan this summer to become the team’s unquestionable biggest star and top scorer, leaving bigger names and salaries like Pato and Robinho behind. He has scored 7 goals in Milan’s last 8 league matches, currently leading the scoring chase over players like Edinson Cavani, Antonio Di Natale and Miroslav Klose. He began his career playing for Genoa, and has a total of 16 league goals in 41 matches since joining Milan.

German Bundesligsa – Stefan Kießling, Leverkusen, 12 Goals

The 28 year old German isn’t going to become an international star, but in the small scale of the Bundesliga and Leverkusen, the club he has played for since 2006, he’s doing more than just fine. He has had a fantastic last couple of months, helping Leverkusen to second in the league, scoring six goals over the last seven matches. He is only two goals away from reaching 100 Bundesliga goals in his career, which began playing for Nuremberg.

French Ligue 1 – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG, 18 Goals

What did you expect? Zlatan is having quite an easy time in France when it comes to scoring, and lately, his teammates have been catching up as PSG claim the top spot in the league once again, in what seems to be a harder than expected title race. Ibrahimovic has scored 8 goals over the last 6 matches in the league, coming back from his incredible display against England better than ever. He now stands at 207 career goals in 378 matches.

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