EUROPEAN GOLDEN SHOE WINNERS

The European Golden Shoe is an award given to the each season top scorer which includes only league matches in every top division of European leagues. This award started in 1967/68 season and first winner was Eusebio. It was presented by French magazine L'Equipe. At that time all leagues worth the same. So award could win any player from any first division of European countries. So we have winners from countries like Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania... L'Equipe was official allotter from 1967/68 to 1990/91. Top scorer in 1990/91 was Darko Pančev from Crvena Zvezda. Pančev scored 34 goals. Cyprus football federation protested because they said that player from their league scored 40 goals. But if you search through football history pages you could see that Cyprus league top scorers from that season have 19 goals. Suad Beširević and Panikos Xiourouppasscored 19 goals each. Do to this affair they decided to make this competition unofficial and Pančev received his shoe in 2006. Because of that L'Equipe issued no awards between 1991 and 1996.

We also had controversies several seasons before. In 1986/87 Rodion Camataru scored 44 goals but 20 of them were scored in last 6 matches what caused lot of controversies and complains. He then got European Golden Shoe award but was later disqualified. Trophy was later awarded to Toni Polster who scored 39 goals. Camataru was allowed to keep his copy of the award.

From 1991 to 1996 winners were initially not awarded. In those years top scorers in Europe were from Scotland, Wales, Armenia and Georgia.

From 1996/97 to nowadays winners are awarded by European Sports Media. Since then we have system based on points. So players from top European leagues could win award even if they scored less goals from some other player from weaker league. This is based on UEFA coefficients. Goals scored in the top five leagues are multiplied by a factor of two, six to 21 are multiplied by a factor of 1,5... Since this change there was only one winner who wasn't playing in top 5 leagues. It was Henrik Larsson (Celtic) in 2001. 

1968- EUSEBIO (42 goals)


1969- PETAR ZHEKOV (36 goals)


1970- GERD MULLER (38 goals)


1971- JOSIP SKOBLAR (44 goals)


1972- GERD MULLER (40 goals)


1973- EUSEBIO (40 goals)


1974- HECTOR YAZALDE (46 goals)


1975- DUDU GEORGESCU (33 goals)


1976- SOTIRIS KAIAFAS (39 goals)


1977- DUDU GEORGESCU (47 goals)


1978- HANS KRANKL (41 goals)


1979- KEES KIST (34 goals)


1980- ERWIN VANDENBERGH (39 goals)


1981- GEORGI SLAVKOV (31 goals)


1982- WIM KIEFT (32 goals)


1983- FERNANDO GOMES (36 goals)


1984- IAN RUSH (32 goals)


1985- FERNANDO GOMES (39 goals)


1986- MARCO VAN BASTEN (37 goals)


1987- ANTON POLSTER (39 goals)


1988- TANJU COLAK (39 goals)


1989- DORIN MATEUT (43 goals)



1990- HRISTO STOICHKOV / HUGO SANCHEZ (38 goals)


1991- DARKO PANČEV (34 goals)


1992- ALLY MCCOIST (34 goals)


1993- ALLY MCCOIST (34 goals)


1994- DAVID TAYLOR (43 goals)


1995- ARSEN AVETISYAN (39 goals)


1996- ZVIAD ENDELADZE (40 goals)


1997- RONALDO (34 goals)


1998- NIKOS MACHLAS (34 goals)


1999- MARIO JARDEL (36 goals)


2000- KEVIN PHILLIPS (30 goals)


2001- HENRIK LARSSON (35 goals)


2002- MARIO JARDEL (42 goals)


2003- ROY MAKAAY (29 goals)


2004- THIERRY HENRY (30 goals)



2005- DIEGO FORLAN / THIERRY HENRY (25 goals)


2006- LUCA TONI (31 goals)


2007- FRANCESCO TOTTI (26 goals)


2008- CRISTIANO RONALDO (31 goals)


2009- DIEGO FORLAN (32 goals)


2010- LIONEL MESSI (34 goals)


2011- CRISTIANO RONALDO (40 goals)


2012- LIONEL MESSI (50 goals)


2013- LIONEL MESSI (46 goals)



2014- CRISTIANO RONALDO / LUIS SUAREZ (31 goals)


2015- CRISTIANO RONALDO (48 goals)


2016- LUIS SUAREZ (40 goals)


2017- LIONEL MESSI (37 goals)


2018- LIONEL MESSI (34 goals)


2019- LIONEL MESSI (36 goals)


2020- CIRO IMMOBILE (36 goals)