Midfielder Towell scored 25 times as Dundalk won the 2015 SSE Airtricity League Premier Division title, and also scored the winner in the FAI Cup final earlier this month.

The 24-year-old was therefore included in a Marca report showing the current ranking in the 2015/16 Golden Shoe award for the top scorer across all Europe’s top divisions.

Towell’s photo appeared in a graphic alongside Europe’s other leading sharpshooters such as Borussia Dortmund pair Patrick Aubameyang and Robert Lewandowski, Shakhtar Donetsk’s Alex Teixeira and Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy. Elsewhere on the page it was pointed out that current Golden Shoe holder Cristiano Ronaldo is “far off the top” with just eight La Liga goals so far this season for Real Madrid.

With former Ireland underage international Towell currently interested in a move abroad, such European recognition will surely have been appreciated. However Marca stopped short of suggesting that Madrid president Florentino Perez might be interested in signing the one-time Celtic youth teamer as his latest galactico attacker, should Ronaldo’s much mooted move to Paris Saint Germain take place in January.