Who would have thought that Romelu Lukaku would be, at this point of the season, be giving Cristiano Ronaldo a hot chase for the prestigious Capocannonoire trophy? Well, that’s only a testament to how good he has been this season.
Without an iota of doubt, Romelu Lukaku is having a blast of a season in the colours of Inter Milan and it is now understandable why Antonio Conte wanted to uproot the Eiffel Tower in France to have him sign the dotted lines while he was at Chelsea.
Unfortunately, Romelu Lukaku’s time at Manchester United under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ended in a sweet-bitter experience with 9 goals in 23 appearances but at Inter Milan under Antonio Conte, the Belgian all-time highest goalscorer has gone through a renaissance with 58 goals in 82 appearances.
The Capoccanonoire is the award for the highest goal scorer for each season in the Italian Serie A and this season the race is between five-time Ballon D’or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu who have 20 and 18 goals respectively with 13 matches left to the end of the season.
So the question on everyone’s mind is who will win the Capocannonoire trophy this season?
Here are four reasons why we think Romelu Lukaku beat Cristiano Ronaldo to the award to become the first Belgian recipient of the award.
1. One advantage Romelu Lukaku have at the moment is that Inter Milan are only playing in Serie A at the moment which means the Belgian will be fresher for matches than Ronaldo who is technically saddled with the responsibility of qualifying Juventus for the UEFA Champions League.
2. Andrea Pirlo won’t take the risk of playing Cristiano Ronaldo in all the Serie A matches should Juventus go beyond the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League. So, Lukaku who has his eyes on the Serie A title and the Capocannonoire will take advantage of his absence.
3. Romelu Lukaku is in a better goalscoring form than Cristiano Ronaldo with six goals in his last five matches while the Portuguese captain has four.
4. There are fewer expectations on Romelu Lukaku to win the golden boot in a league that has Cristiano Ronaldo. This means that Lukaku will be playing under less pressure than Ronaldo who is yet to win the accolade since his arrival three years ago.
Ciro Immobile is the current holder of the award after he finished with 36 goals last season. The Italian, however, is not likely to retain his award this season as he currently has 14 goals in 24 appearances.
So, the Capocnnonoire will most likely have a new first-time winner this season between Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku. It remains to be seen how the race will pan out this season but one thing we can be assured of this that the race will likely go down the wire.
Even though Ronaldo leads by two goals at the moment, Lukaku has proven that he has what it takes to outshine the Portuguese in the race to win the coveted prize at the end of the season.
