The History of Golden Boot Winners at the Euros

Many facts about the men’s European Championships are well-known, like that it started in 1960 and Cristiano Ronaldo is the all-time top-scorer with 14 goals. However, you may not be aware of the individual Golden Boot winners in each edition since the European Nations Cup as it was initially known started 60 years ago with Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, France and Yugoslavia.

The inaugural Golden Boot was shared between the Soviet pair of Viktor Ponedelnik and Valentin Ivanov, Yugoslav duo Dražan Jerković and Milan Galić and Frenchman François Heutte. Ponedelnik claimed a share of the award in the best possible fashion, netting an extra-time winner in the final after Milan Galić had given Yugoslavia the lead. 

Four years later, the award was shared between a trio with the Hungarian pair Dezső Novák and Ferenc Bene both netted twice alongside Spaniard Chus Pereda. Novák and Bene shared three goals to earn Hungary the consolation of winning the third-place play-off against Denmark but Pereda upstaged them both by scoring the opener in the final as Spain denied the Soviets consecutive titles. 

The third edition finally saw the first outright winner with the honour going to Yugoslavia’s Dragan Džajić, a small consolation after his side’s final defeat to Italy. A tricky winger, Džajić was seen by many to be one of the finest exponents of wing-play of his generation and his late goal against world champions England had seen Yugoslavia reach their first Euros final. He scored again in the final second goal but a late Italy goal forced a replay they scarcely deserved and the Italians ran out comfortable 2-0 winners in the rematch.