From Sebastian Giovinco to Lionel Messi this year, some huge names have won the MLS Golden Boot over the years.
But who has won it most convincingly? In recent years, we’ve seen a number of goalscoring records be set and then quickly broken, with the quality of forwards rapidly increasing and players becoming ever more prolific.
Below, we’ve taken a look back at the five highest-scoring MLS Golden Boot winners in league history and remembered their incredible feats.
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5. Bradley Wright-Phillips
- Year: 2014
- Club: New York Red Bulls
- Games: 32
- Goals: 27
Only six players in MLS history have scored more goals than Bradley Wright-Phillips, who is quite simply a New York Red Bulls legend and the club’s top scorer by quite a distance.
BWP won two MLS Golden Boots during his six-and-a-half years in New Jersey, but it was his first one in 2014 that was most impressive.
The former Manchester City man netted an incredible 27 goals in just 32 regular-season appearances — and 31 in 37 across all competitions — in what was his first full season at the club.
BWP was five goals clear of any other player in MLS, while his haul helped fire the Red Bulls to fourth in the Eastern Conference, before they eventually exited the MLS Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference final.
Wright-Phillips earned Best XI and All-Star honours that year, as well as the Red Bulls MVP award, and he would be a Golden Boot winner again just two years later.
4. Chris Wondolowski
- Year: 2012
- Club: San Jose Earthquakes
- Games: 32
- Goals: 17
Alongside Wright-Phillips, Chris Wondolowski is one of just five players to win multiple MLS Golden Boots. 2012 saw him win it for the second time, with an identical games and goals record to BWP’s 2014 effort.
‘Wondo’ finished even further ahead of the chasing pack, with his nearest challenger — Kenny Cooper — way back on 18 goals. This return was even more impressive given it came at a time when the likes of Robbie Keane and Thierry Henry were in MLS, scoring 16 and 15 goals, respectively, that season.
Wondolowski’s ruthlessness helped the San Jose Earthquakes win the Supporters’ Shield that season, pipping Sporting Kansas City by three points, but they’d crash out of the Playoffs at the first hurdle against eventual champions LA Galaxy.
3. Lionel Messi
- Year: 2025
- Club: Inter Miami
- Games: 28
- Goals: 29
This year, Lionel Messi has set an incredible standard that very few in MLS history have been able to compete with.
The Argentine legend has netted a ridiculous 29 goals in 28 games to sit five clear of Denis Bouanga and Sam Surridge in the Golden Boot race — and those two competitors played 31 and 34 games, respectively.
That gives Messi a 1.04 goals per game rate, which is the second-highest since the Golden Boot race became purely about goals in 2005 — we’ll get to the one player who outperforms him shortly.
Messi’s goals helped Miami finish third in the East, and they’re now tied 1-1 in a three-game Playoff series against Nashville SC.
Had Messi been available for the entire 34-game regular season, you have to think that he’d have set a new goalscoring record. Even at 38, the GOAT is unstoppable.
2. Josef Martinez
- Year: 2018
- Club: Atlanta United
- Games: 34
- Goals: 31
Even in his later years and after some awful knee injuries, Josef Martinez is a reliable goalscorer who will hit double figures for you.
But back in 2018, he was an absolute freak of nature.
The Venezuela international had already preluded his Golden Boot campaign with 19 goals in 20 regular season matches in his 2017 debut season — plus another strike in the US Open Cup. And then he took things to another level, netting no fewer than 31 goals in 34 games in 2018 as Atlanta United finished second only to the Red Bulls in the Supporters’ Shield race on 69 points — which remains the fifth-highest in league history.
At the time, that was a record goal tally, but as you’re about to find out, he’d only hold the record for one year.
Martinez went on to score four times in the Playoffs as ATL won MLS Cup in just their second-ever season, while he also netted another goal in the US Open Cup.
This was one of the legendary MLS campaigns, from a goalscorer who will go down as one of the greatest in league history. It’s just a shame that he suffered a knee injury at the start of the following campaign that kept him out until 2021. While he remains an elite finisher, Josef has never physically been the same since.
1. Carlos Vela
- Year: 2019
- Club: LAFC
- Games: 31
- Goals: 34
Absolutely nobody has delivered a season like Carlos Vela did in 2019.
The former Arsenal man was simply unstoppable, scoring from distance, up close, from the penalty spot and via free-kicks, to clock up a phenomenal 34 goals in just 31 regular-season games. That is, of course, an MLS record, as is his rate of 1.10 goals per game — a return that even Messi has not yet managed to equal.
Vela, however, was just the centrepiece in what was a formidable LAFC team that year, with the Black and Gold cruising to the Supporters’ Shield title with 72 points — an MLS record at the time that has only been beaten by the New England Revolution (73, 2021) and Inter Miami (74, 2024) since.
The former Mexico international’s overall haul in 2019 was 38 goals in 36 appearances, but while LAFC enjoyed a memorable 5-3 win over El Trafico rivals LA Galaxy — featuring Zlatan Ibrahimovic — in the Western Conference semi-final, eventual champions and playoff experts Seattle Sounders beat them 3-1 in the Western Conference final with a counter-attacking masterclass in LA.
It’s a travesty that Vela didn’t lift MLS Cup in 2019, but Supporters’ Shield, Golden Boot, All-Star, Best XI and MLS MVP crowns more than illustrated his brilliance.
And in the end, Vela did get his hands on MLS Cup three years later anyway.