The I-League Golden Boot is an annual Indian association football award given to the top goalscorer at the end of the I-League season, the top domestic league competition in club Football in India, since its creation in 2007.
The top-scoring I-League Golden Boot winner is Ranty Martins Soleye with 32 goals in a 26-game season with Odafe Onyeka Okolie holding the record when the league was an 18-game season with 22 goals. Ranti won the award for the most times with five wins however Odafe has won the award most times for a single club, winning thrice while playing for Churchill Brothers.
Aser Pierrick Dipanda of Mohun Bagan is the latest winner of the Golden Boot, his consecutive second. During the 2017–18 season, he scored 13 goals in 18 matches.
Recipients
As of the March 2018 six players have won the golden boot award. Only three player has won the award more than once with Ranti winning the award most times with five wins. Winning the golden boot though might not translate into league success as thrice once in eleven I-League seasons as the team which has the golden boot winner won the league as well and the latest was in 2015-16 when scoring leader Sunil Chhetri and his team, Bengaluru won the league.
List of Golden Boot winners
The following table is a list of winners of the I-League Golden Boot per season, detailing their club, goal tally, actual games played, and their strike rate (goals/games).
Season | Winner | Club | Goals | Games | Rate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2007–08 | Odafe Onyeka Okolie | Churchill Brothers | 22 | 18 | 1.22 |
2008–09 | Odafe Onyeka Okolie | Churchill Brothers | 24 | 22 | 1.09 |
2009–10 | Odafe Onyeka Okolie | Churchill Brothers | 21 | 24 | 0.87 |
2010–11 | Ranti Martins | Dempo | 28 | 22 | 1.27 |
2011–12 | Ranti Martins | Dempo | 32 | 26 | 1.23 |
2012–13 | Ranti Martins | Prayag United | 26 | 25 | 1.14 |
2013–14 | Cornell Glen | Shillong Lajong | 14 | 19 | 0.74 |
Sunil Chhetri | Bengaluru FC | 23 | 0.61 | ||
Darryl Duffy | Salgaocar | 24 | 0.58 | ||
2014–15 | Ranti Martins | East Bengal | 17 | 20 | 0.85 |
2015–16 | Ranti Martins | East Bengal | 12 | 13 | 0.92 |
2016–17 | Aser Pierrick Dipanda | Shillong Lajong | 11 | 17 | 0.65 |
2017–18 | Aser Pierrick Dipanda | Mohun Bagan | 13 | 18 | 0.72 |
2018–19 | Pedro Manzi | Chennai City | 21 | 18 | 1.16 |
Willis Plaza | Churchill Brothers | 20 | 1.05 | ||
2019–20 | Aser Pierrick Dipanda | Minerva Punjab | 12 | 16 | 0.75 |
2020–21 | Bidyashagar Singh | TRAU | 12 | 15 | 0.8 |
2021–22 | Marcus Joseph | Mohammedan | 15 | 18 | 0.83 |
Leading Indian goalscorer
Ever since the beginning of the I-League in 2007, only two Indian players have been the I-League Golden Boot winners with Sunil Chettri winning the award in 2013-14 season and Bidyashagar Singh winning the award in 2020–21 season. The following table lists the top Indian goalscorer in each season and their overall ranking in that season's top scorer table.
Season | Player | Club | Goals | Games | Rate | Overall rank |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2007–08 | Bhaichung Bhutia | Mohun Bagan | 10 | 16 | 0.62 | 5th |
2008–09 | Sunil Chhetri | East Bengal | 9 | 14 | 0.64 | 4th |
2009–10 | Mohammed Rafi | Mahindra United | 14 | 22 | 0.68 | 2nd |
2010–11 | Jeje Lalpekhlua | Indian Arrows | 13 | 15 | 0.86 | 7th |
2011–12 | Chinadorai Sabeeth | Pailan Arrows | 9 | 26 | 0.34 | 11th |
2012–13 | C. K. Vineeth | Prayag United | 7 | 23 | 0.30 | 13th |
2013–14 | Sunil Chhetri | Bengaluru FC | 14 | 23 | 0.61 | 1st |
2014–15 | Thongkhosiem Haokip | Pune | 7 | 18 | 0.39 | 7th |
2015–16 | Sunil Chhetri | Bengaluru FC | 5 | 14 | 0.36 | 6th |
Sushil Kumar Singh | Mumbai | 16 | 0.31 | |||
2016–17 | C. K. Vineeth | Bengaluru FC | 7 | 15 | 0.47 | 5th |
Sunil Chettri | Bengaluru FC | 16 | 0.44 | |||
2017–18 | Abhijit Sarkar | Indian Arrows | 4 | 14 | 0.29 | 8th |
Subhash Singh | NEROCA | 17 | 0.24 | |||
2018–19 | Jobby Justin | East Bengal | 9 | 17 | 0.52 | 4th |
2019–20 | Rochharzela | Aizawl | 6 | 15 | 0.4 | 11th |
2020–21 | Bidyashagar Singh | TRAU | 12 | 15 | 0.8 | 1st |
2021–22 | Thahir Zaman | Gokulam Kerala | 5 | 15 | 0.33 | 12th |