Soccer is all about scoring goals.
We love a solid tackle or a beautiful pass, but it’s goals we all tune in to see, so the MLS Golden Boot Winner tends to get a lot of attention each season. It’s a personal award for the player who scored the most goals in the regular season, and it doesn’t always go to players in the most successful teams.
It’s also a great way to compare goal scoring greatness. For example, it’s hard to argue that Castellanos’ 2021 Golden Boot win with 19 goals measures up to Carlos Vela’s 34 goals two years earlier.
The award wasn’t always given to the player with the most goals, though. Major League Soccer started life using a points based system to find the ‘Scoring Champion’, before switching to a more traditional Golden Boot award from 2005 onwards.
I’ll explain how that worked shortly, but first, have a look at every Golden Boot winner in MLS history so far.
(Picture Credit: artvlive Flickr (cropped))
Golden Boot Winner List
The following players all won the Golden Boot based on the number of goals they scored.
In cases where two players scored the same number of goals, the award would be decided by looking at the number of assists each player had. If they also had the same number of assists, then the number of minutes played would be used to find a winner. Obviously, the player with the fewest minutes would win, because they had notched up more goals and assists per minute than the other player.
Here is a list of the most lethal finishers for each season that Major League Soccer has been running:
- 2025 – Lionel Messi (Inter Miami CF, 29 goals)
Messi claimed the 2025 MLS Golden Boot with 29 regular-season goals over 28 league appearances. He added 20 assists, finishing the season with 49 goal contributions, one of the highest tallies in MLS history. Miami won the MLS Cup too, with Messi getting MVP. - 2024 – Christian Benteke (D.C. United, 23 goals)
The Belgian striker led the league with 23 goals in 30 matches, accounting for 44% of D.C. United’s total goals. Despite his efforts, the team did not qualify for the playoffs. - 2023 – Denis Bouanga (Los Angeles FC, 20 goals)
Bouanga became the first Gabonese player to win the Golden Boot, finishing the season with 20 goals. He notably scored six goals in his final three matches, including a hat trick against Minnesota United FC. - 2022 – Hany Mukhtar (Nashville SC, 23 goals)
Mukhtar tallied 23 goals in 33 games, accounting for 44% of Nashville’s goals, and helped guide the team into the postseason. - 2021 – Valentín Castellanos (New York City FC, 19 goals)
Castellanos secured the Golden Boot on the final day of the regular season, finishing with 19 goals and 8 assists, edging out Ola Kamara on the assists tiebreaker. - 2020 – Diego Rossi (Los Angeles FC, 14 goals)
In a season shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rossi led the league with 14 goals in 19 appearances. - 2019 – Carlos Vela (Los Angeles FC, 34 goals)
Vela set a new MLS single-season record with 34 goals, surpassing Josef Martínez’s previous record of 31. He also contributed 15 assists, leading LAFC to the Supporters’ Shield. - 2018 – Josef Martínez (Atlanta United, 31 goals)
Martínez scored 31 goals, breaking the previous single-season record. His performance was instrumental in Atlanta United’s MLS Cup victory. - 2017 – Nemanja Nikolić (Chicago Fire, 24 goals)
Nikolić led the league with 24 goals in his debut MLS season, helping Chicago Fire return to the playoffs. - 2016 – Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls, 24 goals)
Wright-Phillips became the first player in MLS history to record two seasons with 20 or more goals, finishing with 24. - 2015 – Sebastian Giovinco (Toronto FC, 22 goals)
Giovinco’s 22 goals and 16 assists set an MLS record for combined goals and assists in a single season. - 2014 – Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls, 27 goals)
Wright-Phillips tied the then-record for most goals in a single MLS season with 27. - 2013 – Camilo Sanvezzo (Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 22 goals)
Sanvezzo won the Golden Boot with 22 goals, becoming the first Whitecaps player to earn the honor. - 2012 – Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes, 27 goals)
Wondolowski tied the then-MLS single-season record with 27 goals and was named MLS MVP. - 2011 – Dwayne De Rosario (D.C. United, 16 goals)
De Rosario led the league with 16 goals, despite splitting the season between three teams. - 2010 – Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes, 18 goals)
Wondolowski emerged as the league’s top scorer with 18 goals, leading San Jose to the playoffs. - 2009 – Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas, 17 goals)
Cunningham secured his second Golden Boot with 17 goals, including a four-goal performance against Kansas City. - 2008 – Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy, 20 goals)
Donovan led the league with 20 goals in 25 matches, despite the Galaxy missing the playoffs. - 2007 – Luciano Emilio (D.C. United, 20 goals)
In his debut MLS season, Emilio scored 20 goals, helping D.C. United win the Supporters’ Shield. - 2006 – Jeff Cunningham (Real Salt Lake, 16 goals)
Cunningham led the league with 16 goals and added 11 assists, setting single-season records for RSL. - 2005 – Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution, 17 goals)
Twellman won the inaugural MLS Golden Boot with 17 goals in 25 matches.
Between 2004 and 2005 the rules changed.
The following players were technically the MLS Scoring Champion rather than the Golden Boot winner, but most would have still won if the award was given on goals scored alone:
- 2004 – Amado Guevara (MetroStars, 10 goals and 30 points) and Pat Noonan (New England Revolution, 11 goals and 30 points)
The last Scoring Champion award and the first time the award was shared, yet neither of the winning players were actually top goal scorer. Brian Ching and Eddie Johnson both scored 12. - 2003 – Preki (Kansas City Wizards, 12 goals and 41 points)
Topping the leader board for a second time, Preki was 40 years old at the time. An astounding achievement for such an old player. Although he wasn’t top scorer, with Carlos Ruiz and Taylor Twellman both scoring 15. - 2002 – Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution, 23 goals and 52 points)
Taylor Twellman became Scoring Champion in his first MLS season, although he only just scraped it on points. Carlos Ruiz scored one more, but Twellman also bagged 6 assists for a greater points total. - 2001 – Alex Pineda Chacón (Miami Fusion, 19 goals and 47 points)
Pineda Chacón led the league with 19 goals, helping Miami Fusion secure the Supporters’ Shield before the team was disbanded. - 2000 – Mamadou Diallo (Tampa Bay Mutiny, 26 goals and 56 points)
Diallo’s 26 goals in just 28 games for Tampa Bay Mutiny made him the league’s top scorer. Many of these were assisted by the famous Carlos Valderrama. - 1999 – Jason Kreis (Dallas Burn, 18 goals and 51 points)
Kreis became the first American-born player to become the MLS most valuable player, when he lead the league in netting 18 goals during the season. - 1998 – Stern John (Columbus Crew, 26 goals and 57 points)
John had a prolific season with 26 goals, earning him the top scorer title and a move to the English Premier League thereafter. - 1997 – Preki (Kansas City Wizards, 12 goals and 41 points)
Although DC United’s Jamie Moreno led the league with 16 goals, Preki’s league best 17 assists plus his 12 goals gave him the edge on points. He was also named MVP that season. - 1996 – Roy Lassiter (Tampa Bay Mutiny, 27 goals and 58 points)
Lassiter set a record that wouldn’t be beaten until 2018, with 27 goals in the inaugural MLS season. This was a benchmark that was equalled a few times, but took 22 years to beat.
The Scoring Champion Points System (1996-2004)
In the early days, Major League Soccer wanted to set itself apart from other soccer leagues, so it did things its own way. This is why we had the shootout era, for example, and is also why they initially went for a Scoring Champion decided via a points based system rather than a Golden Boot like everyone else.
Both of these were eventually scrapped, but the Scoring Champion points system worked like this: Every time a player scored a goal they were given 2 points. Every time they got an assist they were given 1 point. At the end of the season the player with the most points, regardless of how they got them, was made the Scoring Champion.
Apart from sounding lame, the Scoring Champion award could technically be won on assists alone, which is clearly madness. You would be right to think this would be highly unlikely, and it never happened, but something else did.
Earlier on I said that ‘most’ Scoring Champions would still have won the award if it was based on goals alone. This is true, but in 2004, the last year before MLS switched to a traditional Golden Boot format, there was an issue.
Amado Guevara of the MetroStars and Pat Noonan of New England Revolution both scored 30 points. Guevara had 10 goals and 10 assists while Noonan had 11 goals and 8 assists. They therefore shared the award, which didn’t go down particularly well and highlighted the limitations of the current system.
Especially since there were two other players who had scored more goals than both of them. Brian Ching of the San Jose Earthquakes scored 12 with 4 assists, and Eddie Johnson of FC Dallas scored 12 with 2 assists.
This situation made a mockery of the award, and it is what ultimately triggered the change.