Picking the outright brightest star is never easy, and sometimes blinding.

The shortlist for #SOTW included…

Florian Niederlechner (Freiburg)/ Bundesliga – With his two goals against Eintracht Frankfurt, Freiburg was able to cut down the point gap between the two sides down to two; giving them a chance to dream about the possibility of getting a place a European competition.

Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)/ Premier League – His two goals against Everton was the foundation to Tottenham’s success in keep the Premier League alive.

Lionel Messi (Barcelona) La Liga – An inspired performance and scoring a brace and guide Barcelona to a healthy victory over Celta Vigo.  A victory that makes the title race between Real Madrid and Barcelona (and Sevilla) interesting.

Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City)/ Premier League – Leicester City need another league win to get a little comfortable in the Premier League.

Dries Mertens (Napoli)/ Italian Serie A – for getting Napoli victory in the ‘Derby del Sole’. The victory brings third-place Napoli just two points away from second-place Roma.

For scoring the equalizer, the winning goal, and the insurance goal for his team to come back late from a goal down and avoid a defeat at home.  With just about a quarter of regulation time left to play, Andrea Belotti scored a hat-trick to get Torino from a losing position to a winning comfortably at home over Palermo.

This week’s #SOTW award will be going to

Andrea Belotti

(Torino)/ Italian Serie A

His three goals within the space of 8 minutes guided Torino to a victory over relegation-zoned Palermo.