Most football fans are aware of the concept of the golden boot: an annual award given to the player that scores the most goals in a particular competition. What goes somewhat under the radar, however, is the European Golden Shoe: a trophy (in the shape of a golden shoe, naturally) that rewards the ‘best’ goalscorer on the continent.
By best, we don’t necessarily mean the most prolific. L’Equipe, the French newspaper that originally came up with the concept, did just give it to the highest goalscorer between 1968 and 1991. But European Sports Media, who took over the running of the award in 1996, realised that they couldn’t just give the award to the player that scored the most goals in a European league.
Points System & Premier League Winners
European Sports Media created a points system – latterly based on UEFA’s coefficient rankings – that gave a slight leg-up to those who scored their goals in what would be considered a higher grade. Hence why those in elite leagues have generally dominated the European Golden Shoe stakes over the past two decades, rather than, say, a hotshot in the Azerbaijani top tier – but not necessarily, as it turns out, marksmen from the Premier League.
At the time of writing, Mo Salah is on course to win the European Golden Shoe in 2024/25, while Erling Haaland – courtesy of his outrageous 36-goal haul for Manchester City in 2022/23 – got to keep the trophy on his mantelpiece for a year. However, they’re the only EPL contingent to win (or be likely to win) the European Golden Shoe in the past decade.
If you want to go back even further, Cristiano Ronaldo is the only other recipient after a goal-laden season in the Premier League since 2006. So, why don’t Premier League players win the European Golden Shoe prize more often? Does it prove how much more difficult it is to consistently score goals at the very highest level?
Unlevel Playing Field
At the time of writing, the ‘big five’ leagues on the continent – the Premier League, La Liga, German Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 – all enjoy a 2x coefficient when calculating the European Golden Shoe winner. The leagues then ranked 6-22, as per UEFA’s standings, get a 1.5x coefficient, while every other division in Europe gets a 1x coefficient.
Calculating the Maths
For basic math fans, if a Premier League striker notches 25 goals in a season, with the 2x coefficient added into the mix they score 50 points in the European Golden Shoe standings. All of which means that a player in a 1.5x coefficient league would need to score 34 goals or more to outstrip a striker from an elite league, while those playing in the bottom rung divisions would need to score a heady 50 goals in a season to equal the 25-goal player from the Premier League, La Liga etc.
The Argument
As you can see, this isn’t exactly a level playing field: in fact, since European Sports Media introduced this points-based system, only two players from outside of the big five leagues – Henrik Larsson (Celtic) and Mario Jardel (twice with FC Porto) – have been able to get their hands on the European Golden Shoe. It might seem unfair, but clearly there’s weight to the argument that it’s harder to score goals in the elite leagues than it is in lower down the European football ecosystem, so all’s fair in love and war.
Winner from Big Five Leagues
Each year, the favourite to win the European Golden Shoe will likely come from the continent’s big five leagues, and given that the Premier League and the German Bundesliga are, typically, the highest scoring of these elite divisions, you would think that the odds are skewed even further in their favour. But the stats suggest otherwise…
Is the Premier League the Best in the World?
🔵🔴 #OTD last year, Lionel Messi became the 1st player ever to win the European Golden Shoe 6 times ⚽️#UCL pic.twitter.com/taxb8Zn1jF
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) May 26, 2020
Isn’t it amazing that, given all the exceptional attacking players that have plied their trade in the Premier League, only three of them have won the European Golden Shoe in the past two decades? Indeed, between 2014/15 and 2023/24, only Ronaldo and Haaland were able to lift the trophy while representing the Premier League.
Lionel Messi
What does this tell us? Well, we know that many of the best players of the modern era have appeared in the Premier League at one time or another – Lionel Messi is, of course, perhaps the major exception (and a six-time European Golden Shoe winner), while Robert Lewandowski and Ciro Immobile are others that have outscored the rest in another big five league.
Harry Kane
Harry Kane is a European Golden Shoe winner, but with Bayern Munich instead of Tottenham. There is, perhaps, an argument that the Premier League is, therefore, the best domestic competition in world football. Surely, given the exceptional talent tool in the EPL over the past 20 years, there should have been more than two European Golden Shoe winners representing the division… particularly with the aid of that 2x coefficient?
Bundesliga
If the overall standard of play is high in the Premier League, is it also true that its member clubs are stronger defensively than the rest of Europe? The answer, perhaps, is no: over the course of the past five completed seasons, the average number of games witnessing three or more goals is 56% – more than any of the other big five leagues bar the German Bundesliga (60.8%).
Champions League Winners
Plenty of goals are being scored in the EPL, but not enough by a single player to dominate the European Golden Shoe standings – Haaland, Ronaldo and perhaps Salah apart. Only three of the last 12 Champions League winners have represented the Premier League – at a ratio of 25%, that is lower than you would expect for a competition with the EPL’s abundant riches and resources.
The Jury Is Out
What’s more, only one of the past 15 winners of the Ballon d’Or have originated from the Premier League; again, a surprisingly poor return. So, is the Premier League the best in world football? Maybe, maybe not. But the results of the European Golden Shoe and Ballon d’Or awards in recent times would suggest that there has been, whisper it, a dearth of truly world-class individuals plying their trade in the English top tier.
