The European Golden Boot is one of the most prestigious awards a striker can win in football. It basically represents the best forward of the season with the greatest ability to score goals. Over the years, we’ve seen some of the best football players in the history of football achieving this prize.
Among them are of course Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who have 10 Golden Boots between them. But, other great strikers have also managed to get this award. Below we reveal some of the best Golden Boot moments.
Season 2013/14: a race to the Golden Boot as exciting as getting free bets
This was the year when Luis Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo shared the European Golden Boot. Both players scored 31 league goals for Liverpool and Real Madrid, respectively.
In the second to last match of the season, Ronaldo picked up an injury in the 9th minute. This basically forced him to miss the final two games. On the other hand, Luis Suarez scored in the 37th round to level up with Ronaldo. But, on his final appearance of the season, he failed to hit the net.
In the end, both players had to share the prize while each of them failed to win the league. It was super entertaining to watch such top players battle for the same prize in different competitions.
This rivalry even attracted a lot of bettors’ attention. Some of them even applied for generous bonuses and used the extra funds to bet on either Liverpool or Real Madrid. One similar offer is the bet 10 get 40 free bets, which provides additional credits for wagering on football.
Season 2004/05: another shared prize between two legends
Next, we have the first shared Golden Boot prize, which involved Thierry Henry and Diego Forlan. Henry scored 25 goals for Arsenal while Forlan netted the same amount for Villarreal.
This is actually the lowest number of goals that got any player the European Golden Boot. But, scoring or not, both players still failed to win the league they competed in. Arsenal only got to lift the English Super Cup while Villarreal didn’t win any trophy.
Besides the 25 goals, Henry scored 5 additional goals in the UEFA Champions League. Forlan, on the other hand, didn’t score in any other competition that season.
We must also note that this was Henry’s second Golden Boot win in a row. The previous year, he got the award after scoring 30 goals. That was the season when Arsenal won the Premier League without a single defeat.
Season 2011/12: setting a new goal-scoring record
Here is one of the best seasons ever achieved by a footballers from any era. This is when Lionel Messi scored a total of 73 and assisted 32 goals. By the end of the season, he netted a staggering 50 goals in the league alone.
Messi even broke Dudu Georgescu’s record of 47 goals, set in season 1976/77. Surprisingly, Barcelona failed to win the league that year as Real Madrid managed to accumulate 9 more points.
However, the Catalan club did win the Spanish Cup, Spanish Super Cup, UEFA Super Sup, and FIFA World Cup. All of this came after lifting the UEFA Champions League the previous season.
It’s worth pointing out that the only player that came close to this new record was Cristiano Ronaldo. He was just two goals short in season 2014/15, which was his last Golden Boot.
Season 2015/16: Suarez scoring more goals than prime Ronaldo and Messi
Last but not least, we have Luis Suarez’s second European Golden Boot win. This occurred in season 2015/16 where the Uruguayan scored 40 league goals. In total, he got the ball in the net 59 times in all competitions.
This was the season when Barcelona won the league. But, the previous year, they managed to lift the UEFA Champions League, La Liga, and the Spanish Cup.
Prior to the Golden Boot, Suarez was up against some serious competition. The closest ones were Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 36 and 35 goals, respectively. In the 4th and 5th positions were Jonas from Benfica, who got 31, and Lewandowski, who netted 30 with Bayern Munich.
You should also know that Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored 38 goals that season for PSG. But, he ended up in 6th place due to the scoring factor. In the French league at the time, the total goals would multiplied by 1.5 to get the overall points. But, in England, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Portugal they had a 2.0 factor.
