The Cymru Premier Golden Boot is an annual

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

award presented to the leading goalscorer in the

Cymru Premier The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. It was found ...

at the end of each season. The award was created in 1993 for the inaugural season of the competition, which was originally named the League of Wales before being rebranded as the Welsh Premier League in 2002. In 2019, the league was rebranded for a second time, being named the Cymru Premier. Steve Woods of

Ebbw Vale Ebbw Vale (; ) is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River in Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough. The Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr conurbation has a ...

, was the first player to win the Golden Boot after scoring 29 times during the first season. Since then, the award has been handed out at the end of each of the Welsh Premier League's 30 seasons of competition and has been won by 15 individuals as of June 2022. Rhys Griffiths has won the Golden Boot on more occasions than any other player, winning the award in seven consecutive seasons between 2006 and 2012. Chris Venables has won the award on five occasions, Graham Evans on three occasions while

Eifion Williams Eifion Wyn Williams (born 15 November 1975) is a Welsh former footballer who played over 300 games in the Football League, over 200 of which were for Hartlepool United. He has represented Wales at B level as well as Ynys Môn at the Island Gam ...

, Marc Lloyd Williams and Greg Draper have two awards each. Marc Lloyd Williams holds the record for the most goals in a single season, scoring 47 during the 2001–02 campaign. The lowest tally of goals to win the award is 19, scored by Griffiths in the 2011–12 season. Brad Young is the current holder, winning the golden boot in his first season in the league with

The New Saints The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club, commonly known as The New Saints () or TNS FC, are an English professional football club that play in the , but are based completely within England, in Oswestry, Shropshire. They a ...

Winners

History

The League of Wales was founded in 1992, becoming the top tier of Welsh domestic football. The Golden Boot award began alongside the first season of the new division. Steve Woods claimed the award in the inaugural season, scoring 29 times for

. His tally included six of his side's goals in a 10–0 victory over Briton Ferry Athletic on 6 January 1993, which remained the league's record victory until 1998. In the following season,

Porthmadog Porthmadog (), originally Portmadoc until 1972 and known locally as "Port", is a coastal town and community (Wales), community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd, Wales, and the historic counties of Wales, historic county of Caernarfonshire. It li ...

player David Taylor won the award after scoring 43 goals in 38 appearances. His tally saw him named as the top goalscorer in Europe and he was awarded the

European Golden Shoe The European Golden Shoe, also known as the European Golden Boot, is an award that is presented each season to the player with the most points in league matches from the top division of a European national league. The trophy is a sculpture o ...

, outscoring his nearest competitor,

Andy Cole Andrew Alexander Cole (born 15 October 1971) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. His professional career lasted from 1988 to 2008, and is mostly remembered for his time with Manchester United, who paid a Brit ...

in the English

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

, by nine goals. Two years later, Conwy United's

Ken McKenna Kenneth McKenna (born 2 July 1960) is an English former professional footballer and manager who last worked as assistant manager of National League side AFC Fylde. Playing career McKenna started his senior playing career with Poulton Victoria ...

fell two goals short of the award after scoring 38 goals in a single season; he lost out to Zviad Endeladze of Georgia. Tony Bird was denied the European Golden Shoe in the 1996–97 season after a new points scoring system was introduced based on

UEFA coefficient In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments (country rankings only), ...

league rankings. Players in higher rated leagues were awarded more points than those in lower ranked leagues meaning Bird missed out on the award to

Ronaldo Ronaldo is a Portuguese given name equivalent to the English Ronald. It became a common name in all Portuguese-speaking countries, also prevalent in other Romance countries. People Notable people known as Ronaldo include: Association footballe ...

, who played in Spain's

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

, despite scoring eight more goals than the Brazilian.

won the Golden Boot in 1997 as he helped Barry Town win the league title without losing a game. The following season, he became the first player to win the award for both a second time and in consecutive years, despite being sold to

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

side

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

with two months of the campaign remaining. Eifion Williams' goals-per-game ratio remains the highest of all time in the competition. Marc Lloyd Williams set the league record for the most goals scored in a single season during the 2001–02 campaign by scoring 47 goals in 33 appearances. His tally was the highest in Europe; he scored five more goals than European Golden Shoe winner

Mário Jardel Mário Jardel de Almeida Ribeiro (; born 18 September 1973) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was most noted for his positioning on the field and his heading ability. In spite of only representing Gr� ...

. Williams repeated the feat three years later with 34 goals during the 2004–05 season. In 2004, the award was won by Andy Moran of

Rhyl Rhyl (; , ) is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire in Wales. The town lies on the coast of North Wales, at the mouth of the River Clwyd. To the west is Kinmel Bay and Towyn, to the east Prestatyn, and to the south-east Rhuddlan ...

, however he was stripped of his title and suspended from playing for seven and a half months after he tested positive for the banned steroid

nandrolone Nandrolone, also known as 19-nortestosterone, is an endogenous androgen. It is also an anabolic steroid (AAS) which is medically used in the form of esters such as nandrolone decanoate (brand name Deca-Durabolin) and nandrolone phenylpropionate ...

. The award was subsequently given to the second-highest scorer Graham Evans of

Caersws Caersws (; ) is a village and community (Wales), community on the River Severn, in the Wales, Welsh county of Powys; it was formerly in Montgomeryshire. It is located west of Newtown, Powys, Newtown, halfway between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury. ...

, who became the first player to win the award three times. Rhys Griffiths won his first Golden Boot in 2006 with Port Talbot Town. He joined

Llanelli ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire and the Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is on the estuary of the River Loughor and is the largest town in the Principal areas of Wales, ...

a year later and went on to win the award for a further six consecutive seasons, becoming the first player to win the award more than three times and the second player, after Williams, to score 200 goals in the Welsh Premier League. Griffiths' last win, during the 2011–12 season, remains the lowest scoring total to claim the award with 19 goals. In 2013, Michael Wilde of

became the first player other than Griffiths to win the award since 2005. A year later, Chris Venables became the first player not recognised as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

to claim the Golden Boot. The

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

netted 24 times in 30 appearances and went on to retain the award for a further two seasons. In 2018, New Zealand international Greg Draper became the first non-British player to win the Golden Boot after scoring 22 goals during the 2017–18 season. He retained the award the following year with a further 27 goals despite spending more time as a substitute than playing. Venables claimed his fourth title in the 2019–20 season, scoring 22 times in 25 appearances during a campaign which was ended after 26 matches due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. He retained the award the following year with a further 24 goals in 31 appearances. Declan McManus became the fourth TNS player to win the award during the 2021–22 season, also scoring 24 times.

List

Awards won by club

Notes

References

{{featured list Cymru Premier

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...