I-League Golden Boot
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 30 goals in a 26 game season with Odafe Onyeka Okolie holding the record when the league was a 16 game season with 22 goals. Odafe has won the award most times in three seasons with Churchill Brothers.
Ranty Martins of Dempo is the latest winner of the Golden Boot, his first. During the 2010–11 season, he scored 30 goals. The average number of goals scored in the I-League boot winners is 25 goals in an average of 21 games per season, this means that the top scorer of the I-League scores 1.19 goals per game.
Recipients
As of the September 2011 two players from two clubs have won the golden boot award. Only one player has won the award more than once and that is Odafe who won the award three times. Winning the golden boot though might not translate into league success as only once in four I-League seasons as the team which has the golden boot winner won the league as well and that was 2008-09 when scoring leader Odafe and his team, Churchill Brothers won the league.
So far an Indian has not won the trophy with both winners of the golden boot coming from Nigeria.
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 |
Averages | 25.50 | 22.83 | 1.12 |
Leading Indian goalscorer
Ever sense the beginning of the I-League in 2007 an Indian player had never been the I-League Golden Boot winner. 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 | Baichung 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 | 15 | 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 |