Any football player participating in the scorers race wants to become the owner of the Golden Boot. The desired trophy will decorate the collection of personal achievements of a world-class striker, but the competition for the award is incredible. Athletes every game season strive to achieve success in individual skill, but the only representative of the old world becomes worthy of a figurine, as well as the recognition of colleagues and the public. There were years when the trophy was awarded to several participants at once, and a completely different outcome happened.
Delivery Rules
The present delivery history includes a set of rules developed in 1997. The organizers are Adidas Corporation and ESM.
The player himself can be a citizen of any state, but the main criterion is the team that he represents should be part of UEFA. So, until 1991, the award was awarded to the player who scored the most goals, but the duration and prestige of the championship were not taken into account. At the moment, the leagues that are stronger in status have a higher coefficient. Now the striker needs not only to score more than all goals, but also to do it in the best championships in Europe.
The first owners of the Golden Boot
In football of the second half of the 20th century, club grandees will be more difficult to name than now. The winners in this nomination were representatives of the Bulgarian CSKA (Petar Zhekov), the Austrian Rapida (Hans Krankl), the Belgian Liers (Erwin Vandenberg) and others. Of course, you should not forget the best goals of the European teams.
Among them: Gerd Muller from Bayern Munich, Eusebio from Portugal, who is a Benfica player, Dudu Dzhorgesku from Dynamo FC in Bucharest, and Fernando Gomes - the best scorer of the 90s in Porto. Each of the last athletes listed has received a trophy twice in his career.
Presentation of Adidas
In the entire history of the Golden Boot owners have not been officially awarded 5 years. And the reason for this was the claim filed by the Cyprus Football Federation. In their opinion, this award should have been received by the player who represented the championship of their country in 1991, and not Darko Panchev. The Association of European Sporting Media (ESM) refused to participate in the selection of the winner, and Adidas took up the entire organization. The company independently determined the status of the best forward. Among them: Allie McCoist (twice), Davis Taylor, Arsen Avetisyan and Zviad Endeladze.
ESMs were preparing a set of new rules regarding many of the controversial issues of the award of the early years. The adjustment of the system for determining the laureate pleased many federations, fans, and most importantly football players. Relatively speaking, in the championships of Greece, Georgia, Austria or Serbia it is much easier to win competition in the scorer race than in England, Italy and Spain. Now this has come to be taken into account.
1997 - .......
The first triumph who received the award after a series of changes was the Brazilian unique - Ronaldo. That year, he represented the club Barcelona, and scored 68 points. At the next ceremony, the championship laurels are taken by Nikos Mahlas representing Vitesse. The Dutch championship was part of the best leagues of UEFA, which allowed the forward to take the championship, conquering the opponent’s gate 34 times.
The list of Golden Boot winners was replenished by world-famous football players. For example, Brazilian Mario Jardel, who excelled at the club level, is excellent. Being the brightest and most effective forward of the clubs of Portugal, he was awarded the title of champion twice, and also received the UEFA silver and bronze award in this category.
Thirsting for new team and personal victories, in 2004 Thierry Henry won the nomination. The French legionnaire carried all his rivals in the English Premier League, where he helped his Arsenal to take the gold medals of the national championship. And next year, two goalscorer flaunted in a standing ovation. Henry shared the podium step with Diego Forlan. Players of the Fiorentina (Luca Toni), Roma (Francesco Totti), Liverpool (Luis Suarces) and others rose to the stage for the prize, but in recent years it has been difficult to win the competition against two masters of football.
Ronaldo and Messi
There is nothing to add about these two masters. Their club, international and personal achievements speak about them. We believe that you should not list all the merits of the geniuses of the game, but only reflect the number of boots made of precious metal.
Lionel Messi is a five-time winner of the title of the best goalie of the Old World, and the last two years have awarded him. Another small advantage is that the Argentine is younger than his counterpart.
Cristiano Ronaldo is a four-time winner of this nomination. First came out for the award, playing for Manchester United. Later, three more times he replenished his gallery of achievements, introducing the “Real” from Madrid.
Now the Portuguese has posed a new challenge, moving to Italy. Perhaps a new enthusiasm and incentive to prove their absolute superiority will bear fruit.
In this individual race, only a few times it turned out to surpass these titans: Diego Forlan for Atlético Madrid and Luis Suárez for Barcelona.