The players who won the Premier League Golden Boot with the most goals
The Premier League Golden Boot has been won by some of the greatest forwards in the history of the game, but only a handful have ever reached the truly extraordinary tallies that separate them from the rest. With Premier League top scorer odds regularly attracting attention from fans and bettors alike, here is a look at every player who has lifted the award with 30 or more goals to their name.
36 goals: Erling Haaland (2022/23)
Nobody in Premier League history has scored more goals in a single season than Erling Haaland, and it is difficult to imagine the record being broken any time soon. The Norwegian arrived at Manchester City in the summer of 2022 and proceeded to dismantle every benchmark the division had to offer, finishing with 36 league goals in his debut season. He surpassed the previous record by two, doing so in a manner that made the whole exercise look effortless. At the age of 22, he had already written his name into the history books in a way few players ever will.
34 goals: Andy Cole (1993/94) and Alan Shearer (1994/95)
For almost three decades, Andy Cole’s 34 goals for Newcastle United in 1993/94 stood as the Premier League’s single-season record. Cole was a ferocious finisher at the peak of his powers that season, playing in a Newcastle side that was genuinely thrilling to watch. The following year, Alan Shearer matched the tally exactly, doing so for Blackburn Rovers as they claimed the Premier League title. Two different clubs, two different styles of striker, the same extraordinary number.
32 goals: Mohamed Salah (2017/18)
Mohamed Salah’s first full season at Liverpool produced one of the most jaw-dropping individual campaigns in Premier League history. 32 goals in a 38-game season broke the record for the modern format of the competition and announced Salah as one of the best players on the planet. He won the Golden Boot with room to spare and, in doing so, transformed perceptions of what a wide forward could achieve in terms of pure goal output.
31 goals: Alan Shearer (1995/96), Cristiano Ronaldo (2007/08), and Luis Suarez (2013/14)
Three players with very different career arcs share this tally, each achieving it under entirely different circumstances. Shearer reached 31 goals in his final season at Blackburn before his record move to Newcastle, underlining just how prolific he was across consecutive campaigns.
Cristiano Ronaldo hit the same number for Manchester United in 2007/08, a season in which he won both the Premier League and the Champions League and announced himself as the best player in the world. Luis Suarez matched them both in 2013/14, a season of extraordinary brilliance that very nearly carried Liverpool to the title.
30 goals: Kevin Phillips (1999/2000), Thierry Henry (2003/04), and Robin van Persie (2011/12)
The 30-goal mark has been reached by three more players, each with a compelling story attached. Kevin Phillips remains one of the only player from outside England’s traditional big clubs to win the European Golden Boot, achieving the feat with Sunderland in 1999/2000 in one of the great individual underdog achievements.
Thierry Henry reached 30 goals in 2003/04, part of the Invincibles season that saw Arsenal go the entire campaign unbeaten. Robin van Persie delivered his 30-goal haul for Manchester United in 2011/12 in his first season at Old Trafford, a campaign that almost single-handedly delivered the title to Alex Ferguson.
The standard that defines greatness
Any football bet placed on the Golden Boot winner tends to focus on the usual elite names, and looking at this list, it is easy to understand why. 30 goals in a Premier League season is a threshold that only the very best have reached, and the players who have done so represent a who’s who of the most devastating forwards the division has ever seen. Haaland sits alone at the summit for now, but history suggests it is only a matter of time before someone comes along to rewrite the record books again.