ISL Golden Boot winners: Dimitrios Diamantakos to Elano, know the top scorer in every ISL
Over its ten seasons, the ISL has seen some prolific goal scorers. Here is the full list of the ISL Golden Boot winners.
Football
Given to the ISL top scorer of each season, the ISL Golden Boot award is the holy grail every striker or attacker playing in India’s premier football league aspires to win.
Fans, too, tend to follow the Golden Boot race closely each season.
Over the years, the prestigious Golden Boot has been won by some brilliant strikers like Stiven Mendoza, Elano Blumer and Ferran Corominas. Greek striker Dimitrios Diamantakos joined the illustrious list in ISL 2023-24, scoring 13 goals for Kerala Blasters FC.
Here’s a list of all the ISL Golden Boot winners across nine seasons.
ISL 2023-24 Golden Boot winner – Dimitrios Diamantakos
The race for the ISL 2023-24 Golden Boot was one of the closest ever with nine players scoring ten goals or more in the season. Two of them, Kerala Blasters FC's Dimitrios Diamantakos and Odisha FC's Roy Krishna were the top scorers with 13 goals each.
However, it was KBFC's Diamantakos who took home the Golden Boot, having played considerably lesser matches (17) compared to Krishna (25).
Dimitrios Diamantakos' stats in ISL 2023-24
Goals: 13
Assists: 3
Games: 17
ISL 2022-23 Golden Boot winner – Diego Mauricio
After a fiercely-contested race to the ISL 2022-23 Golden Boot, Odisha FC's Diego Mauricio won bagged the coveted award after seeing off stiff challenges from multiple contenders.
Diego Mauricio scored 12 goals in 21 matches while ATK Mohun Bagan's Australian forward Dimitri Petratos scored 12 goals in 23 matches and East Bengal's Brazilian striker Cleiton Silva netted 12 goals in 20 matches. Diego Mauricio, however, pipped both to the Golden Boot as he took lesser minutes to score his 12 goals.
The Brazilian played 1536 minutes compared to Cleiton Silva's 1778 and Dimitri Petratos' 2091.
Mauricio's heroics also helped Odisha FC progress beyond the group stage for the first time in the team's history.
Diego Mauricio’s’ stats in ISL 2022-23
Goals: 12
Assists: 4
Games: 21
ISL 2021-22 Golden Boot winner – Bartholomew Ogbeche
Having missed out on a technicality in 2019-20, Bartholomew Ogbeche left nothing to chance in the ISL 2021-22 Golden Boot race. The Nigerian striker, in fact, scored almost twice the number of goals his nearest competitors managed.
Playing for Hyderabad FC, Bartholomew Ogbeche scored 18 goals in 20 matches to drive the Nizams to the final and eventually the ISL title.
Igor Angulo, playing for Mumbai City FC, and Jamshedpur FC’s Greg Stewart scored 10 goals each to finish behind the Nigerian World Cupper in the Golden Boot race.
His tally also helped Ogbeche equal Ferran Corominas’ haul of 18 goals from the 2017-18 campaign as the highest number of goals scored by a player in a single ISL season.
En route to winning the ISL 2021-22 Golden Boot, Bartholomew Ogbeche also became the highest goal scorer in ISL history, pipping India legend Sunil Chhetri.
Bartholomew Ogbeche’s’ stats in ISL 2021-22
Goals: 18
Assists: 1
Games: 20
ISL 2020-21 Golden Boot winner – Igor Angulo
A tight race concluded right on the final day of the seventh season, with FC Goa striker
Igor Angulo winning the ISL 2020-21 Golden Boot, edging out ATK Mohun Bagan talisman Roy Krishna on technicality.
Both players ended with 14 goals each, but Angulo won the coveted prize since he had taken lesser minutes (1,645) than Krishna (2,062) to get his tally.
Roy Krishna did have the opportunity to overtake the Spaniard with a goal in the final but failed to hit the back of the net.
In any of the previous seasons, the race would have swayed Krishna’s way since he had eight assists compared to Angulo’s zero.
Till ISL 2019-20, if two or more players had the same number of goals, the player with more assists would have been given the Golden Boot. The rule was changed heading into ISL 2020-21.
Igor Angulo was signed by FC Goa to fill the shoes of the departing Ferran Corominas.
The Spaniard proved his worth, scoring 14 goals in 21 matches.h
Igor Angulo’s stats in ISL 2020-21
Goals: 14
Assists: 0
Games: 21
ISL 2019-20 Golden Boot winner – Nerijus Valskis
Former Chennaiyin FC striker Nerijus Valskis was ISL’s top scorer of the season 2019-20 after what turned out to be the most closely-contested race to the ISL Golden Boot in the competition’s history.
Three players – Nerijus Valskis, ATK’s Roy Krishna and former Kerala Blasters FC striker Bartholomew Ogbeche – scored 15 goals in the season. While in most leagues elsewhere, including the Premier League, the award would have been shared, the case is different in the ISL.
According to ISL rules until that season, if multiple players are tied on goals scored by the end of the season, the player with a higher assist count will win the Golden Boot. If they are equal in both goals and assists, the player having played lesser minutes claims the award.
Both Nerijus Valskis and Roy Krishna were tied at 15 goals and six assists at the end of the season, but the Lithuanian walked away with the award having played 20 matches – one less than Krishna. Although Bartholomew Ogbeche scored 15 goals in just 18 games, he was knocked out of the race since he had just one assist.
Incidentally, the Krishna-Valskis tussle was settled right on the last day of the season – the ISL 2019-20 final. Nerijus Valskis scored while Roy Krishna grabbed an assist, forcing the minutes-played differential to come into play.
Though having shifted loyalties to Jamshedpur FC for ISL 2020-21, Valskis continued under head coach Owen Coyle, whose arrival at Chennaiyin FC kickstarted his scoring run.
Nerijus Valskis stats in ISL 2019-20
Goals: 15
Assists: 6
Games: 20
ISL 2018-19 Golden Boot winner – Ferran Corominas
One of the top scorers in ISL with 48 goals from 57 matches, it’s unsurprising former FC Goa ace Ferran Corominas or Coro will have an ISL Golden Boot to his name. Coro, in fact, has two.
The 2018-19 ISL Golden Boot was Corominas’ second one. The Spaniard scored 16 goals in 20 matches to edge out Ogbeche, then playing for NorthEast United FC, and former Mumbai City FC forward Modou Sougou - both of whom had 12 goals from 18 matches each.
Till date, Corominas is the only player to have won back-to-back ISL Golden Boot awards. He also came mighty close in 2019-20 and had 14 goals and 4 assists from 17 matches. If not for a suspension and FC Goa missing out on the final, Coro could have trumped Valskis for a hat-trick of ISL Golden Boots.
Ferran Corominas’ stats in ISL 2018-19
Goals: 16
Assists: 7
Games: 20
ISL 2017-18 Golden Boot winner – Ferran Corominas
Having set foot in India after joining FC Goa from Cypriot club Doxa Katokopia, the then 34-year-old Corominas took the ISL by storm in his debut season.
Corominas scored 18 goals in 20 matches whilst laying out five assists for his team-mates. He was the ISL top goal scorer of the campaign ahead of Bengaluru FC’s Miku (15 goals in 20 matches) and Sunil Chhetri (14 goals in 21 matches).
The Spaniard scored on his ISL debut against Chennaiyin FC and followed it up with consecutive hat-tricks in his third and fourth match in the ISL. His tally of 18, to date, stands as the most goals scored by any player in a single ISL season. It was the prolific scorer's first entry in the ISL Golden Boot winners list.
Ferran Corominas’ stats in ISL 2017-18
Goals: 18
Assists: 5
Games: 20
ISL 2016 Golden Boot winner – Marcelinho
Brazilian wizard Marcelo Leite Pereira, popularly known as Marcelinho, worked his magic in the 2016 campaign, leading the erstwhile Delhi Dynamos FC to the semi-finals.
Though his team was knocked out of the semi-finals through penalties, Marcelinho emerged as the ISL top scorer for the season with 10 goals from 15 matches. ATK’s Iain Hume came in second with seven goals in 14 matches but never quite threatened Marcelinho’s charge for the 2016 ISL Golden Boot.
As many as seven players, including Uruguayan legend Diego Forlan, ended with five goals each.
Do note, until 2016 the ISL was played between eight teams before being increased to 10 in 2017-18. Consequently, the matches played were also fewer.
Marcelinho’s stats in ISL 2016
Goals: 10
Assists: 5
Games: 15
ISL 2015 Golden Boot winner – Stiven Mendoza
ISL 2015 is often remembered as the Stiven Mendoza show. It was the Colombian’s second season in the ISL, but injuries had only restricted Mendoza to flashes of brilliance in his debut campaign in 2014 with Chennaiyin FC.
Fully fit in his second season, Mendoza terrorised defences with his blistering pace, quick dribbling, and capped them off with lethal finishes. In what was an incredible campaign, Mendoza found the back of the net 13 times in 16 games, seeing off a challenge from ATK’s Iain Hume for the ISL Golden Boot that season.
His most memorable goal of the season was the title-winning strike against FC Goa deep into stoppage time in a dramatic final. With his team trailing 2-1 at the end of the regulation 90 minutes, Mendoza’s pressure on the ball forced an own goal from FC Goa goalkeeper Laxmikant Kattimani.
The Colombian, however, wasn’t done. In the dying seconds, he broke away to score the winner and handed Chennaiyin FC their maiden ISL title. It was also the only time in ISL history, a player from the champion team bagged the ISL Golden boot award.
John Stiven Mendoza’s stats in ISL 2015
Goals: 13
Assists: 3
Games: 16
ISL 2014 Golden Boot winner – Elano Blumer
The first player to make the ISL Golden Boot winners list was Brazilian Elano Blumer. The former Manchester City playmaker was Chennaiyin FC’s marquee player for the inaugural ISL season.
Equipped with lethal free kicks and long shots, Elano finished with eight goals in ISL 2014 – three more than any other player that season. Quite expectedly, he scored some long-range screamers en route to guiding the Marina Machans to the semi-finals.
Elano Blumer’s stats in ISL 2014
Goals: 8
Assists: 1
Games: 11