C.Ronaldo denied chance to be Serie A top scorer after being LEFT OUT to face Roma

Cristiano Ronaldo has been denied the chance to beat Lazio striker Ciro Immobile to the European Golden Shoe award after being omitted from Juventus' squad for their final Serie A game of the season.

Maurizio Sarri opted to rest Portuguese star Ronaldo for Saturday night's clash with Roma with one eye on their Champions League campaign, which resumes on Friday against Lyon.

Ronaldo was already considered a longshot for the award, trailing Immobile by four goals in the race, but will now miss out on claiming the gong for certain.

The award - which Ronaldo has previously won four times - only counts league goals  and multiplies the goal tallies by a coefficient based on the relative strength of that league to its European counterparts.

In the case of Europe's major leagues, that means multiplying by a factor of two.

Immobile has scored 35 times in 36 league games this season and leads the charts, one in front of Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski and five ahead of Ronaldo who is in third.

The 35-year-old has played an integral role in Juventus winning their ninth successive Scudetto, scoring 31 times in Serie A this term, but will not get his hands on this particular personal honour this year which looks set to go to the prolific Immobile.