Premier League Golden Boot Winners

The Premier League Golden Boot Through the Years

The top division in England has been known as the Premier League since the 1992/93 season. For the first 3 seasons the league had 22 teams, meaning each side played a total of 42 games. From 1995/96, the league was reduced to 20 teams, meaning each side played a total of 38 games.

Teddy Sheringham won the first ever Premier League Golden Boot award, scoring 22 goals in 41 appearances for Tottenham Hotspur, who finished in 8th place.

Andy Cole’s Super Season

In the 1993/94 season, Andy Cole picked up the prize with 34 goals in 40 games for Newcastle United. Incredibly, his goal tally that season didn’t include a single penalty goal! In fact, only 1 of his 187 total Premier League goals came from the spot. Cole also provided 13 assists in the Premier League in 93/94, meaning he topped both the goals and assists charts, an achievement that wouldn’t be matched until Harry Kane in 2020/21.

Shearer Dominance

In the following 94/95 season, Alan Shearer won the first of his 3 consecutive Premier League Golden Boots, scoring 34 goals in 42 games for title-winning Blackburn Rovers. Shearer’s 34 goals matched Andy Cole’s tally from the previous season, an overall Premier League record that the pair would share for almost 30 years - until the arrival of the relentless Erling Haaland in 2022/23.

The 95/96 season was the first 38 game Premier League season, in which Alan Shearer retained his Golden Boot scoring 31 goals in 35 games - an impressive ratio of 0.89 goals per game. This ratio would not be bettered until Cristiano Ronaldo scored 31 goals in 34 games in 2007/08 (0.91 goals per game).

Shearer’s record of 31 goals in a 38-game Premier League season was matched twice (by Ronaldo 07/08 and Suarez 13/14), before finally being broken by Mohamed Salah in 2017/18, with 32 goals in 36 games.

In 1996/97, Alan Shearer became the first player to win the Premier League Golden Boot for two different clubs, after moving to his boyhood club Newcastle United where he notched 25 goals in 31 games. This feat has only been matched twice since - Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for Leeds (98/99) and Chelsea (00/01), and Robin van Persie for Arsenal (11/12) and Man Utd (12/13).

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A New Era and Overseas Influence

As the 20th century neared its conclusion, the Premier League became a truly global league, with an influx of overseas talent both on the pitch and in the dugout.

In 1998/99, Dwight Yorke (Trinidad) and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Netherlands) became the first foreign winners of the Premier League Golden Boot as they shared the award (along with Michael Owen) with 18 goals each. Since then there have only been 3 more English winners of the award - Kevin Phillips (99/00), Harry Kane (15/16, 16/17, 20/21), and Jamie Vardy (19/20).

Michael Owen’s wins in 97/98 and 98/99 make him the youngest player to win the Premier League Golden Boot, at just 18 and then 19 years of age. The next youngest winners are Andy Cole, Harry Kane and Erling Haaland (all 22 years old).

When Kevin Phillips won the award in 1999/2000, he became the first Premier League player to win the European Golden Shoe, awarded to the top league scorer in Europe. His 30 goals in 36 games for Sunderland were enough to beat everyone else in Europe to the coveted award.

The only other Premier League Golden Boot winners who also won the European Golden Shoe are Thierry Henry (twice), Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Erling Haaland.

Premier League European Golden Shoe Winners

Season	Player	Goals	Appearances
1999/00	Kevin Phillips	30	36
2003/04	Thierry Henry	30	37
2004/05	Thierry Henry	25	32
2007/08	Cristiano Ronaldo	31	34
2013/14	Luis Suarez	31	33
2022/23	Erling Haaland	36	35

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Va Va Voom

The early 2000s were dominated by Arsenal’s flying Frenchman Thierry Henry, who picked up the Premier League Golden Boot an unprecedented four times in five seasons between 01/02 and 05/06.

The one he missed out on in that run (won by Ruud van Nistelrooy in 02/03 with 25 goals), Henry became the first player in Europe’s major leagues to register 20+ goals and 20+ assists in a single league season, notching 24 goals and providing 20 assists.

This impressive feat has only been matched once since in Europe’s Top 5 Leagues by, predictably, Lionel Messi in 2019/20 (25 goals + 21 assists).

Henry’s highest tally was 30 goals in 37 appearances in 2003/04, narrowly missing out on equalling what was, at the time, the Premier League record for a 38-game season (Shearer’s 31).

Players with Multiple Premier League Golden Boots

Player	Golden Boots
Thierry Henry	4
Alan Shearer	3
Harry Kane	3
Mohamed Salah	3
Robin van Persie	2
Didier Drogba	2
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink	2
Michael Owen	2

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Elite Challengers

After Henry came so close, Cristiano Ronaldo went one step further and equalled Shearer’s 38-game record, scoring 31 goals in 34 games for Manchester United to pick up the award in 2007/08, a ratio of 0.91 goals per game - the best goalscoring ratio we had seen in the Premier League at the time. This coupled with Man Utd’s league and Champions League triumphs made Cristiano Ronaldo the 2nd Premier League player to win the Ballon d’Or (after Michael Owen in 2001).

Didier Drogba matched Ronaldo’s 0.91 goals per game two seasons later when he scored 29 goals in 32 games for Chelsea in 2009/10. This was Drogba’s 2nd Premier League Golden Boot award, after becoming the first African to win the prize in 2006/07, with 20 goals in 36 games.

Incidentally, Carlos Tevez became the first South American to win the Premier League Golden Boot in 2010/11, scoring 20 goals in 31 games for Manchester City.

Robin van Persie was the next record chaser, coming close with 30 goals in 38 games for Arsenal in 2011/12. He then followed this up with a 2nd consecutive Golden Boot award after moving to Manchester United, where he bagged 26 goals in 38 games.

Then came Uruguayan Luis Suarez, who posted some astounding numbers for Liverpool in 2013/14. He became the 3rd player to score 31 goals in a 38-game season, doing so in just 33 games to set a new goals per game record of 0.94. And what was even more incredible was that Suarez’s total didn’t include a single penalty goal! His tally of purely non-penalty league goals was even enough to win the European Golden Shoe for that season.

Sergio Aguero recorded some truly elite numbers during his decade in the Premier League, with an incredible 184 goals in 275 league games, but injuries meant he only won the Golden Boot once, when he scored 26 goals in 33 games for Manchester City in 2014/15.

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The Harry and Mo Show

From the 2015/16 season, a new era of dominance began as we saw Tottenham’s Harry Kane and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah win 6 of the next 7 Premier League Golden Boot awards between them.

In 15/16, Harry Kane picked up his first award with 25 goals in 38 games. The following season, 2016/17, he stepped things up a notch as he scored a prolific 29 goals in 30 appearances to set a new goals per game record of 0.97.

Then Egyptian Mohamed Salah entered the fray in blistering fashion in 2017/18, breaking the long standing record for most goals in a 38-game Premier League season in his debut Liverpool campaign. Salah scored 32 goals in 36 games, finally setting a new benchmark. Even more impressively, only 1 of his goals came from the penalty spot, meaning he also matched Luis Suarez’s record for non-penalty goals in a 38-game Premier League season.

Most Non-penalty Goals in a Premier League Season

Season	Player	Non-Penalty Goals	Games
1993/94*	Andy Cole	34	40
2013/14	Luis Suarez	31	33
2017/18	Mohamed Salah	31	36
2022/23	Erling Haaland	29	35

*42 game season

Salah retained the Golden Boot in 2018/19, this time with a more modest 22 goals in 38 games. He also shared this award with team-mate Sadio Mane (22 goals in 36 games) and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (22 goals in 36 games).

In 2019/20, Leicester’s Jamie Vardy became the oldest player to win the Premier League Golden Boot, scoring 23 goals in 35 appearances at the age of 33, surpassing Drogba who won the award at 32 years old in 2009/10.

In 2020/21 it was back over to Harry Kane who won the Golden Boot with 23 goals in 35 games, before Salah also picked up his 3rd award in 2021/22 with 23 goals in 35 games. Salah once again shared this award, this time with Son Heung-min (also 23 goals in 35 games), who became the first Asian winner!

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A New Norweigan Benchmark

In 2022/23, Erling Haaland joined Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund, where he scored 62 goals in 67 Bundesliga games. He arrived with great expectations and it’s safe to say he has smashed them, obliterating almost every Premier League goalscoring record in his debut season.

Haaland scored an astounding 36 goals in 35 games, beating the 38-game season record by 4 goals, and the overall 42-game season record by 2 goals - a record that had been held jointly by Andy Cole (93/94) and Alan Shearer (94/95) for almost 30 years.

He also became the first Premier League player to score more goals than he made appearances, setting a new goals per game record of 1.03.

The one significant record Haaland didn’t quite manage to overcome in his debut Premier League season was for most non-penalty goals. His 29 non-penalty goals fell just short of the 38-game season record set by Salah in 17/18 (31 in 36 games) and Suarez in 13/14 (31 in 33 games). Andy Cole has the overall record scoring 34 non-penalty goals in 40 games in 1993/94.