Scoring 365, 24/7

Goals are the biggest component of football. Without players scoring goals, a football match is nothing but a stalemate.

That is the reason why players who put the ball in the back of the net every week, have the biggest price tag to their name when it comes to club transfers.

These players are recognized for their efforts in several ways. But one that stands out is the European Golden Boot – an award that is presented to a player with the most goals in a season from all over Europe. But what are the origins of the European Golden Boot Award? And which players have won it so far since its inception?

History of European Golden Boot 

The award first came into the picture in 1968 and was served right up until 1991. It was awarded by L’Equipe to the highest goal scorer in Europe.

After that, due to no dedicated official committee being announced, between 1991 and 1996, there were no European Golden Boo Awards presented. Ever since, the achievements of those players from those years have been recognized and been awarded their Golden Boots rightfully.

From the 1997/97 season, European Sports Media took the rights for presenting the award and have used a specific Points System to reward players accordingly.

European Golden Boot Winners Points system 

As mentioned before, since the 1996/97 season, The award wasn’t as straightforward as it was in the previous years. From 1968 to 1997, the award was simply presented to the player with the most goals in Europe.

Since 1997, a weighting point system was introduced to select a winner for the European Golden Boot. What this system does is, it allocates extra points to the goals scored by players in the top-ranked leagues. The higher the rank of the league, the more points are allocated to the goalscorer.

Here’s how UEFA have distinguished their European Golden Boot Winners’ point system. Players from the Top 5 leagues in Europe get 2 points per goal. Players from leagues ranked 6-22 are given 1.5 points per goal, while the rest of the players from lower-ranked leagues are awarded 1 point per goal.

List of European Golden Boot Winners