The Premier League Golden Boot has been won by some of the most revered strikers in modern football, but what about those players who very nearly wrote their names into the history books? Here are 15 players who that you forgot (kind of) almost won the Golden Boot.
92/93 – Dean Holdsworth (3rd – 19 goals)
Jumping up from the Third Division to the Premier League in 1992-93 after joining Wimbledon from Brentford, Holdsworth was a revelation in the rebranded competition’s first season. He scored 19 goals that season, finishing three goals away from eventual winner Teddy Sheringham. He would score over 50 Premier League goals with Wimbledon alone, adding a few more to his tally in a later spell with Bolton Wanderers.
97/98 – Kevin Gallagher (joint 4th – 16 goals)
Although the Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton partnership at Blackburn was better known and more fruitful in terms of trophy wins, Sutton also formed a terrific partnership with Scottish striker Kevin Gallagher in 1997/98. They scored 34 goals between them, Gallagher getting 16 while Sutton shared the Golden Boot with Dion Dublin and Michael Owen.
99/00 – Michael Bridges (joint 4th – 19 goals)
Okay, so Michael Bridges was actually nowhere near his ex-Sunderland team-mate Kevin Phillips who ended the 1999/2000 campaign with an eye-watering 30 goals, but his total of 19 helped propel Leeds to a third-placed finish. A serious injury sustained in a Champions League match against Besiktas the following season slowed Bridges in his tracks.
00/01 – Marcus Stewart (2nd – 19 goals)
Ipswich enjoyed an incredible 2000-01 season, finishing fifth and qualifying for the UEFA Cup in their first season back in the top tier thanks in no small part to the goalscoring ability of Marcus Stewart. The Bristolian outscored the likes of Thierry Henry, Michael Owen and Teddy Sheringham in that campaign with 19, four fewer than Golden Boot winner Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
02/03 – James Beattie (3rd – 23 goals)
In what was one of the tightest golden boot races of the Premier League era, Southampton’s James Beattie was perhaps slightly unlucky to finish third in 2002/03 with 23 goals – just one less than Thierry Henry and two less than Ruud van Nistelrooy. The striker’s form that season catapulted him into the England set up, but he played just five times for the Three Lions without getting on the scoresheet.
04/05 – Andrew Johnson (2nd – 21 goals)
Though he later enjoyed fairly productive spells in the Premier League with Fulham and Everton, Andrew Johnson’s real glory days came at Crystal Palace, where he scored 74 league goals in just 140 appearances, with 21 of those goals coming in the 2004/05 Premier League campaign. Like Beattie before him, this form saw him Johnson get the nod for England, but he failed to score in eight appearances for his country.
06/07 – Benni McCarthy (2nd – 18 goals)
Goals were at a premium in 2006/07, the lowest-scoring season in Premier League history, so Benni McCarthy’s 18 for Blackburn in this campaign were vital in earning Blackburn Rovers qualification to the Intertoto Cup. The signing of McCarthy from Porto in the summer of 2006 had been seen as something of a coup and though he never quite hit the heights of his 2006/07 form again, the South African proved to be a reliable source of goals for a further two and a half seasons at Ewood Park.
08/09 – Steven Gerrard (3rd – 16 goals)
Having scored 120 Premier League goals for Liverpool, Gerrard was always amongst the top scorers for the Reds in his long and storied career, but the 2008/09 campaign proved to be his most productive in front of goal. The Liverpool skipper finished third in the top scorer race behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Nicolas Anelka as his side finished second in the table and went unbeaten at Anfield.
11/12 – Clint Dempsey (joint 4th – 17 goals)
Although he ended the season a fair way behind the likes of Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney (30 and 27 goals respectively), Clint Dempsey enjoyed his most prolific form in the 2011/12 season as Fulham finished 9th under Martin Jol. The American scored 23 times in all competitions in that season including 17 in the Premier League, earning him a move to London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
13/14 – Yaya Toure (3rd – 20 goals)
Much like with Steven Gerrard, while nobody can doubt Yaya Toure’s incredible football ability, it’s perhaps surprising to note that he once scored 20 goals in a Premier League season – outscoring team-mates Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko in the process. His tally of 20 in the 2013-14 campaign was double that of his next-highest league total of 10, which came in the following season.
14/15 – Charlie Austin (4th – 18 goals)
Charlie Austin was in red hot form in his first ever Premier League season, bagging 18 goals in 35 appearances to finish fourth in the golden boot race behind Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane and Diego Costa. Unfortunately for him, that consistent output wasn’t enough to stop his QPR side getting relegated, but he would return to the Premier League the following January by joining Southampton.
19/20 – Danny Ings (2nd – 22 goals)
Burnley had a real knack of producing goalscoring talent around this era and following in the footsteps of his former Turf Moor team-mate Austin, Danny Ings troubled the top scorers list in 2019-20 by racking up 22 goals for Southampton to finish just one goal and one place behind Golden Boot winner Jamie Vardy. This was a great redemption story for Ings, who was rebuilding his career after a difficult, injury-affected spell at Liverpool.
20/21 – Patrick Bamford (joint-4th – 17 goals)
Marcelo Bielsa managed to get several players within his Leeds United squad performing above expectations, but Patrick Bamford’s total of 17 Premier League goals in the 2019-20 season is perhaps the most obvious testament to that. He still finished in fourth place and six goals behind eventual winner Harry Kane, but Bamford’s goals in this season helped Leeds to a top half finish in what was their first season back in the top tier for 18 years.
23/24 – Phil Foden/Dom Solanke (joint-4th – 19 goals)
Both Phil Foden and Dominic Solanke enjoyed terrific campaigns in 2023/24, ending the season with 19 Premier League goals each – although admittedly that did still leave them eight goals behind the imperious Erling Haaland. Both players suffered quite dramatic drop-offs in terms of goal output in the following campaign, each ending on single figures after suffering injury issues.