UEFA Champions League: List of all Golden Boot winners
(Courtesy : Real Madrid/Barcelona)
Ronaldo has the highest goal-scoring tally in a single UCL season
The UEFA Champions League is the biggest club competition in European football. It is backed by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) as the name suggests. The first-ever UCL season dates back to 1992.
Top football clubs from around Europe get a chance to be claimed as the champions of the continent. Real Madrid are the serial winners of this competition, winning it a total of 14 times at the time of writing. They can win their 15th after defeating Borussia Dortmund in the 2023-24 finals at the Wembley Stadium.
For the 2023-24 season, it was the usual group stage format comprising of eight groups in total with four teams in each. Every team in a group plays the other a total of two times, at home and away. The top two sides from each group then make it to the Round of 16.
But from the 2024-25 season, this group stage procedure will be entirely scrapped. There will be a league phase approach with all 36 sides (rising from 32 in 2023-24) in the same table. The top eight moves to the Round of 16 while from ninth to 24th battle in the knockout playoffs.
Finally we the 16 teams needed to continue in the usual manner from the Round of 16. Then we have the quarter, semi-finals and the main finale.
The 1992-93 season was the birth of the Champions League as previously it was run as European Cup. Not only the name, but many things around the competition was changed – marketing and TV rights in particular. After the major facelift, Romario ended up winning the first-ever UCL Golden Boot for scoring seven goals with PSV Eindhoven.
Till date, we have seen the UEFA Champions League Golden Boot being shared by a trio of players in history for two times. The 1999-2000 was the first such when Mario Jardel (Porto), Rivaldo (Barcelona) and Raul (Real Madrid) scored 10 goals each.
In the 2000s, this incident happened once again when the world saw Neymar (Barcelona), Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) share the accolade. Each player had scored 10 goals in the 2014-15 UCL season.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been a great success in this competition winning the Golden Boot a historic seven times. He also happens to be the player to score the highest number of goals in a single Champions League campaign (17 goals for Real Madrid, 2013-14 season).
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UEFA Champions League: All Golden Boot winners in history
| 1992-93 | Romario (PSV Eindhoven) – 7 goals |
| 1993-94 | Ronald Koeman (Barcelona), Wynton Rufer (Werder Bremen) – 8 goals |
| 1994-95 | George Weah (PSG) – 7 goals |
| 1995-96 | Jari Litmanen (Ajax) – 9 goals |
| 1996-97 | Milinko Pantic (Atletico Madrid) – 5 goals |
| 1997-98 | Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) – 10 goals |
| 1998-99 | Andriy Shevchenko (Dynamo Kyiv), Dwight Yorke (Manchester United) – 8 goals |
| 1999-2000 | Mario Jardel (Porto), Rivaldo (Barcelona), Raul (Real Madrid) – 10 goals |
| 2000-01 | Raul (Real Madrid) – 7 goals |
| 2001-02 | Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United) – 10 goals |
| 2002-03 | Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United) – 12 goals |
| 2003-04 | Fernando Morientes (Monaco) – 9 goals |
| 2004-05 | Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United) – 8 goals |
| 2005-06 | Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan) – 9 goals |
| 2006-07 | Kaka (AC Milan) – 10 goals |
| 2007-08 | Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) – 8 goals |
| 2008-09 | Lionel Messi (Barcelona) – 9 goals |
| 2009-10 | Lionel Messi (Barcelona) – 8 goals |
| 2010-11 | Lionel Messi (Barcelona) – 12 goals |
| 2011-12 | Lionel Messi (Barcelona) – 14 goals |
| 2012-13 | Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – 12 goals |
| 2013-14 | Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – 17 goals |
| 2014-15 | Neymar (Barcelona), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – 10 goals |
| 2015-16 | Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – 16 goals |
| 2016-17 | Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – 12 goals |
| 2017-18 | Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – 15 goals |
| 2018-19 | Lionel Messi (Barcelona) – 12 goals |
| 2019-20 | Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) – 15 goals |
| 2020-21 | Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund) – 10 goals |
| 2021-22 | Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) – 15 goals |
| 2022-23 | Erling Haaland (Manchester City) – 12 goals |
| 2023-24 | Kylian Mbappé (PSG), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) – 8 goals |
Govind once believed table tennis was his favorite sport—until he discovered the magic of football and Cristiano Ronaldo. Though once told he wasn’t cut out for writing, he now edits the work of others as Sub Editor of Football at Khel Now. Not a caffeine addict, Govind runs on pure adrenaline—whether he’s playing or watching sports.
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