Remarkable Goalscoring Seasons That Weren't Enough to Win the Golden Boot
Scoring 20 or 30 goals in a season is a clear sign that a player has enjoyed a fantastic campaign, and in most cases, it is enough to finish as the league's top scorer. Sometimes, however, a player produces a historically impressive goalscoring season, both by their own standards and those of the league, yet still falls short of winning the Golden Boot. Throughout European football history, there have been numerous examples of strikers who have done virtually everything right in front of goal, only to miss out on the top scorer award.Here, we take a closer look at some of the most remarkable examples since the early 1970s, focusing on seven European leagues widely regarded as being among the strongest. The leagues included are England's Premier League, Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A, Germany's Bundesliga, France's Ligue 1, the Netherlands' Eredivisie and Portugal's Primeira Liga. This is not simply about the highest goal totals players have managed, but also memorable performances, dramatic goalscoring battles and seasons decided by the narrowest of margins.
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Salif Keita - 42 Goals in the French League in 1970/71
The 1970/71 season produced one of the most extraordinary goalscoring duels in European football history. In the French league, Malian striker Salif Keita scored an incredible 42 league goals for Saint-Étienne, a total that would have virtually guaranteed him the Golden Boot in almost any other season. The problem was that Josip Skoblar was also playing in France at the time. Marseille's Yugoslav striker scored an astonishing 44 goals, enough not only to beat Keita in the French scoring charts but also to win the European Golden Shoe.Keita's 42 goals remain one of the highest totals ever recorded by a player who failed to finish as the top scorer in a major European league. Despite being an extremely reliable goalscorer throughout his club career, Keita never won a league top scorer award. However, he became the first recipient of the African Footballer of the Year award in 1970 and also won three French league titles with Saint-Étienne.
Manfred Burgsmüller - 27 Goals in the Bundesliga in 1980/81
The next player to feature here is Manfred Burgsmüller. In the early 1980s, Burgsmüller was one of the Bundesliga's most reliable goalscorers, and during the 1980/81 season, he scored an impressive 27 goals for Borussia Dortmund. This was naturally an outstanding return in a league with "only" 34 rounds of matches, but Bayern Munich's Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was even more prolific, finishing with 29 goals. Burgsmüller's season was consequently overshadowed by a player who was also one of the biggest football stars in the world at the time.What makes Burgsmüller's story particularly remarkable is that he scored more than 200 goals in the German top flight during his career, yet despite that impressive total, he never won the Bundesliga's top scorer award.
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Marco van Basten - 19 Goals in Serie A in 1988/89
Today, Italy's Serie A lives somewhat in the shadow of the Premier League and La Liga in particular, but in the late 1980s, Serie A was arguably the most competitive league in the world. As has often been the case in Italian football, defensive organisation was a major priority, making it considerably more difficult to score large numbers of goals than in many other European leagues.During the 1988/89 season, Marco van Basten scored 19 goals for AC Milan, a total matched by Napoli's Brazilian striker Careca. Both, however, finished behind Inter's Italian forward Aldo Serena, who won the Golden Boot with 22 goals. Van Basten's 19 goals may seem relatively modest compared with today's figures, but in Serie A at the time, it was a very impressive achievement.
Alan Shearer - 31 Goals in the Premier League in 1993/94
Alan Shearer remains the Premier League's all-time leading goalscorer with 260 goals, and he holds a fairly commanding lead at the top, with second-placed Harry Kane still 47 goals behind. Yet during the 1993/94 season, Shearer discovered what it felt like to score more than 30 goals without managing to win the Golden Boot.That season, Shearer scored an impressive 31 goals for Blackburn Rovers, but Newcastle United's Andy Cole went one better, finishing with a remarkable 34 goals. Both benefited from the fact that the Premier League consisted of 42 matches per season at the time, but their achievements were nevertheless exceptional.
Fortunately for Shearer, he only had to wait another year for revenge. In 1994/95, he improved his total to 34 goals, which was enough to win the Golden Boot and lead Blackburn to the club's first and, so far, only Premier League title.
Cristiano Ronaldo - 46 Goals in La Liga in 2011/12
We now come to what is probably one of the most extraordinary goalscoring achievements ever to fall short of winning the Golden Boot, courtesy of a certain Cristiano Ronaldo.During the 2011/12 season, the Portuguese superstar scored an incredible 46 goals in 38 league appearances for Real Madrid. That should surely have been enough to win the scoring title by a comfortable margin, but his great rival Lionel Messi had other ideas. The Argentine scored an astonishing 50 goals for Barcelona and claimed the Pichichi Trophy ahead of Ronaldo.
At least Ronaldo and Real Madrid could console themselves with the league title. The team collected an incredible 100 points and scored a total of 121 goals during the season, but Messi made sure that Ronaldo would not be celebrating an individual goalscoring award that year.
Lionel Messi - 43 Goals in La Liga in 2014/15
But Ronaldo would eventually get his "revenge" on Messi. Three years later, the roles were reversed for the two superstars.During the 2014/15 season, Messi scored 43 league goals for Barcelona, a total that would have resulted in a comfortable Golden Boot victory nine times out of ten, but not on this occasion. That season, Cristiano Ronaldo produced his highest-ever La Liga goalscoring tally, with 48 goals in 35 appearances. Messi therefore had to settle for second place, despite his 43 goals representing one of the highest totals in Spanish league history.
As Ronaldo had done in 2011/12, Messi could at least take comfort in winning the league title. Barcelona also added the Champions League trophy, meaning Messi could hardly regard the season as a disappointment.
Dries Mertens - 28 Goals in Serie A in 2016/17
Belgian Dries Mertens was primarily an attack-minded winger, but when Napoli began using him as a central striker during the 2016/17 season, the decision had an enormous impact. Mertens scored an incredible 28 league goals that season, a sensational achievement for a player who had not traditionally been regarded as an out-and-out goalscorer.However, despite exceeding all expectations, Mertens still failed to win the Golden Boot. Roma's Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko scored 29 goals, denying Mertens the top scorer award by the narrowest possible margin. Torino's Andrea Belotti also deserves a mention, having impressed with 26 goals. It was a season in which three players produced extraordinary scoring figures by Serie A standards.
Robert Lewandowski - 30 Goals in the Bundesliga in 2016/17
When Robert Lewandowski scored 30 league goals for Bayern Munich during the 2016/17 season, he looked set for much of the campaign to add another top scorer award to his collection. However, Borussia Dortmund's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ensured that the battle for the Golden Boot went right down to the wire.In the final round of matches, the Gabonese striker scored twice against Werder Bremen, taking his season total to 31 league goals. Lewandowski finished on "only" 30, losing the title by a single goal. Scoring 30 goals in a 34-match league season without becoming the top scorer is, of course, highly unusual, and says plenty about the quality of both strikers during that campaign.
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Luis Suárez - 22 Goals in the Eredivisie in 2008/09
Before Luis Suárez became a global superstar at Liverpool and Barcelona, he established himself as one of the best strikers at Ajax and in the Dutch top flight. During the 2008/09 season, the Uruguayan scored 22 league goals in the Eredivisie, but still finished behind AZ Alkmaar's Mounir El Hamdaoui, who won the Golden Boot with 23 goals.What makes this season particularly interesting is that El Hamdaoui also helped AZ win the league title, with the club managed at the time by none other than Louis van Gaal, while Ajax had to settle for third place. Suárez would eventually get his revenge. The following season, he exploded into goalscoring form and won the Eredivisie Golden Boot with an incredible 35 goals.
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Graziano Pellè - pictured here during his time at Parma
Graziano Pellè - 23 Goals in the Eredivisie in 2013/14
Staying in the Dutch league, we turn our attention to Graziano Pellè. The Italian enjoyed a fantastic season with Feyenoord in 2013/14, scoring 23 goals in 28 league appearances and establishing himself as one of the most prolific strikers in the Netherlands.Despite his impressive goalscoring record, he missed out on the Golden Boot, as Icelandic striker Alfred Finnbogason scored an incredible 29 goals for Heerenveen, winning the scoring title by a clear margin of six goals.
Pellè's performances nevertheless helped Feyenoord finish second in the Eredivisie and paved the way for his subsequent move to Southampton, where he continued to be an important goalscorer for a couple of seasons.
Islam Slimani - 27 Goals in Portugal in 2015/16
Sporting Lisbon's Algerian striker Islam Slimani enjoyed an excellent 2015/16 season, finishing with 27 goals in the Primeira Liga. However, Benfica's Brazilian striker Jonas outscored him with 32 goals, securing the Portuguese Golden Boot.Slimani's goals helped Sporting collect an impressive 86 points, but the league title also went to Benfica, who finished with 88 points. The Algerian therefore had to settle for two second-place finishes, both individually and with his team. Later that year, Slimani was signed by Leicester City, who had just won the Premier League.
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Alexandre Lacazette - 27 Goals in Ligue 1 in 2022/23
Alexandre Lacazette was a major star at Lyon when he moved to Arsenal in 2017, and although he certainly did not perform badly during his time in London, he never quite became the superstar Arsenal had hoped for.When Lacazette returned to Lyon ahead of the 2022/23 season, however, he immediately rediscovered his old goalscoring form. The Frenchman scored 27 goals and became one of the season's biggest positive surprises in Ligue 1. Unfortunately for Lacazette, Kylian Mbappé was playing for Paris Saint-Germain and continued his dominance of the French scoring charts.
Mbappé scored 29 goals to win the Golden Boot, leaving Lacazette in second place. Lille's Canadian striker Jonathan David also enjoyed an excellent season, scoring 24 goals, a total that would have been enough to finish as the league's top scorer in some other seasons.
Harry Kane - 30 Goals in the Premier League in 2022/23
Harry Kane's final season at Tottenham was, in many ways, a personal triumph. He scored 30 goals in 38 Premier League appearances, a total that would have been enough to win the Golden Boot in most seasons. However, Erling Haaland had just arrived at Manchester City, and the Norwegian immediately broke all previous Premier League records by scoring 36 goals.Kane's performance was particularly impressive because Tottenham endured a disappointing season and finished only eighth in the table. Despite scoring almost half of his team's league goals, he left England without securing a fourth Golden Boot. In the summer of 2023, he moved to Bayern Munich, where he continues to score goals at an almost unbelievable rate.
Serhou Guirassy - 28 Goals in the Bundesliga in 2023/24
One of the most unexpectedly impressive performances in the Bundesliga in recent years came from Serhou Guirassy, who scored 28 goals for Stuttgart in just 28 Bundesliga appearances during the 2023/24 season. Guirassy had never previously come close to producing such figures at the highest level and became one of the main reasons why Stuttgart managed to secure a sensational second-place finish in the league.But just as Guirassy was enjoying his breakout season, Harry Kane was playing his first campaign for Bayern Munich. The Englishman scored an incredible 36 goals and consequently won the Golden Boot by a considerable margin. Guirassy's 28 goals would have been enough to win the scoring title in numerous previous Bundesliga seasons, but unfortunately for him, not this time.
When a Fantastic Season Still Isn't Enough
There is something fascinating about players who score almost unbelievable numbers of goals without winning the Golden Boot. In some cases, it comes down to unfortunate timing; in others, two exceptional strikers simply happen to be at the peak of their careers at the same time.Salif Keita's 42 goals in 1970/71 and Cristiano Ronaldo's 46 goals in 2011/12 are perhaps the clearest examples, but Robert Lewandowski's 30 goals in 2016/17 and Harry Kane's 30 goals in 2022/23 also demonstrate that a striker can produce an absolutely brilliant season without being rewarded with a top scorer title.
And it is precisely these performances that we feel deserve a little extra attention here. Behind every Golden Boot winner, there is often another player who has enjoyed a fantastic season but, due to circumstances beyond his control, has failed to truly write his name into the history books.