Top little-known Golden Shoe winners

The list of European Golden Shoe winners includes well-known names such as Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo (the fat Brazilian), Luis Suarez, Totti, Thierry Henry, Eusebio, Marco Van Basten, Hugo Sanchez, Hristo Stoichkov, Ian Rush, and Gerd Müller. However, the fact that in the early days of the award, goals scored were given equally regardless of league left some winners without the same place in football history as the aforementioned names. That's why we're going to take a brief look at the careers of some of those Golden Shoe winners who are little known to the general public.

The rules

As you may know, the European Golden Shoe is an award given to the player who has scored the most goals in a European league during a season. The award began to be given out starting in the 1967-68 season, although, unlike today, no league was given greater weight over another, so it was more common for players from less important European leagues to win the award. The change to giving more weight to goals in more important leagues (according to the UEFA ranking) began in 1997 (every scored goal in a big league gives 2 points), and since then we have mostly seen winners from the main leagues of the old continent (Spain, Italy, England, and Germany), with a few exceptions.

Petar Zhekov

We begin with one of the most notable goalscorers Bulgaria has ever had, Petar Zhekov, who perhaps didn't gain much international recognition because he never left his homeland. Curiously, in his early days at Dimitrovgrad, he played as a defender, and a manager advised him to start training as a striker. This earned him a move to Beroe Stara Zagora, where he twice won Bulgaria's top scorer. In 1968, he was signed by CSKA Sofia. In his first season, he scored 36 goals, earning him the Golden Shoe. He finished his career at the Sofia club, where he left as the all-time top scorer and with five league titles, four cup titles, and four more Bulgarian top scorer awards.

Dudu Georgescu

The Romanian Dudu Georgescu professional career began with Progresul Bucuresti and then with CSM Resita. Somewhat similar to Zhekov's case he made his debut at the former playing as a defender on a temporary basis, although he always played as a striker. In 1973, he signed for Dinamo Bucuresti, beginning a successful 10-year spell with the club that included four league titles and a Romanian Cup. In the 1974-75 season, he scored 33 goals and won his first Golden Shoe, but in 1976-77, he scored 47 to win the award for the second time, making him the Golden Shoe winner with the most goals for a long time (Messi would dethrone him for that honor in 2011). After leaving Dinamo, he continued playing for smaller teams in Romania, although without the same scoring impact.

Sotiris Kaiafas

The Cypriot Sotiris Kaiafas, originally from the Nicosia region, arrived at Omonia at the age of 16, a local club that would become his lifelong club. At 18, he made his professional debut for the club, beginning a successful career that would lead him to dominate his country's football. In the 1975-76 season, he scored 39 goals, earning him the Golden Shoe. In 1979, when Turkey invaded Cyprus, he had to flee to South Africa for a year, but returned to continue playing for Omonia. His playing career ended after 17 years with the club, which ended with 11 league titles and six Cypriot Cups, as well as several top scorer title in his country.

Kees Kist

The Dutchman Kees Kist began his youth career at VV Steenwijk in his hometown, but later played for Heerenveen, where he had virtually no opportunities. From there, he moved to AZ '67 (now AZ Alkmaar), where he stayed for 10 years and established himself as a fearsome goalscorer, also leading the club to its first Eredivisie title in 1981. However, he had won his Golden Shoe a couple of seasons earlier, in the season of 1978-79, when he scored 34 goals. In 1982, he moved to France, where he spent a couple of years, first with PSG and then with Mulhouse, where he performed well, although he did not reach the standards of his time at AZ, where he returned in 1984. Funnily enough he finished his career at Heerenveen, the club he left at a young age because of lacking opportunities.

Erwin Vandenbergh

We continue to the neighboring country Belgium where Erwin Vandenbergh from a very early age stood out for his local team, Ramsel, and this caught the attention of several big Belgian clubs who wanted to sign him. However, he opted to sign for the team he always supported, Lierse SK. In the 1979-80 season, he scored 39 goals and won the European Golden Shoe. Two years later, he moved to Anderlecht, where he continued to demonstrate his goalscoring prowess, with the difference that he started winning trophies there, something he failed to achieve with the club in his heart, Lierse. With the Belgian giant, he won six domestic titles and the 1982-83 UEFA Cup. In 1986, he tried his luck in France with Lille, where he spent four seasons scoring many goals, although he failed to achieve the same number of goals he had at home. In 1990, he returned to Belgium to play for Gent and then Molenbeek before retiring.

Georgi Slavkov

We start the list with a Bulgarian and end it with another. Georgi Slavkov was a great striker who began his professional career with Trakia Plovdiv (now Botev Plovdiv), where he spent six seasons, although during that time he was loaned to CSKA Sofia, where he made a good impression. In the 1980-81 season, still with Plovdiv, he scored 31 goals and won the Golden Shoe. A year later, he was signed by CSKA Sofia, where he spent four seasons before trying his luck abroad, first in France with Saint Etienne and then with Chaves in Portugal. He then returned to Bulgaria and retired with Plovdiv.