Premier League top scorers 2021/22
Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min have shared the Premier League Golden Boot award this season, having finished with 23 goals each in 2021/22.
Harry Kane was the defending champion after he held off a long challenge from Salah to narrowly finish first in the top-flight scoring charts with 23 last season.
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That was the third success for Kane, matching the total of Golden Boot triumphs held by the all-time EPL record goalscorer Alan Shearer.
This year Kane was seeking what would have been a record-equalling fourth crown.
Follow the 2022-23 Golden Boot race here!
Salah and Bruno Fernandes, who each made the podium last season, entered the campaign hoping to challenge again, while a proven Premier League scorer, Romelu Lukaku, returned to Chelsea after a prolific spell in Serie A with Inter.
Man Utd then brought Cristiano Ronaldo back to Old Trafford in a sensational return, making 2021/22 look like the most competitive Golden Boot race in years.
Former winner Jamie Vardy, Leeds striker Patrick Bamford, Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin, West Ham star Michail Antonio and Aston Villa duo Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings are part of a strong contingent from outside England’s ‘big six’ teams who were rated as contenders when the season began.
This page was updated throughout the season as we took an in-depth look at the latest standings for the players who had the most EPL goals. With the top-flight campaign now over, we have the final results.
The Premier League Golden Boot race came down to a straight battle between Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min over the final weeks of the season.
Ultimately, Liverpool forward Salah and Tottenham star Son shared the award after a thrilling year.
Salah scored 23 league goals in the 2021/22 campaign, with that final total coming from 35 appearances (30 starts).
He topped the goalscoring charts in England on his own for most of the campaign.
However, Salah scored just four goals in his last 11 top-flight outings this season, allowing some of his key rivals to move closer in the standings and in-form Son to ultimately catch him.
The Egypt star needed to score with just six minutes left of Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Wolves on the final day of the season just to claim a share of the award.
That was because Son had charged to the top of the leaderboard. He ends the campaign having scored 23 goals from 35 starts in the Premier League.
The Spurs forward netted 12 times in his last 10 Premier League matches and, having netted a double as his side clinched Champions League qualification by thrashing Norwich City 5-0 on the last day, would have won outright were it not for Salah’s goal against Wolves.
Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, missed out on golden boot glory this season.
The Portugal star finishes in a respectable third place, though, after having a strong conclusion to the season from an individual perspective.
Ronaldo scored nine league goals since March 12 despite missing some matches – like the last game of the season at Crystal Palace – securing a place on the podium for the 37-year-old.
The veteran made fewer starts – just 27 – than anyone else who finished in the top five.
Son’s team-mate Harry Kane surged up to fourth place to finish on 17 goals for the year from 37 outings.
The former Golden boot winner rallied after an uncharacteristically slow start to the season amid a period of intense transfer speculation linking him with Man City.
England captain Kane scored four times in his last three games to finish just short of Ronaldo.
Salah’s Liverpool team-mate Sadio Mane finished fifth with 16 goals as the Reds and Spurs dominated the top of the standings.
Mane finished one ahead of Diogo Jota, who spent much of the season as a key challenger to Salah, only to lose momentum amid intense competition for attacking places at Liverpool as he failed to score in his last seven EPL outings.
The top Man City scorer, Kevin De Bruyne, finishes in a tie for sixth with 15, boosted by his sensational four-goal outing in the 5-1 win at Wolves towards the end of the campaign.
And another former golden boot champion Jamie Vardy moved up to 15 goals after netting five times in four games for Leicester City to end the season on a high.
That trio finished just ahead of Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha (14), while it is Man City attacker Raheem Sterling who rounds out the top 10 along with 13 strikes to his name.
Brentford’s Ivan Toney, West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen and James Maddison of Leicester all ended up on 12 goals for the campaign.
They were ahead of a group on 11 that contained the top league scorers for both Arsenal and Chelsea, England duo Bukayo Saka and Mason Mount.
A total of 25 players reached double figures in the Premier League this season, including Bruno Fernandes and Michail Antonio, who looked like being contenders earlier in the campaign.
2021/22 EPL top goalscorers
Who are the past winners of the Premier League Golden Boot?
EPL Golden Boot winners
The record for most goals in a season is shared by Alan Shearer (1994/95) and Andy Cole (1993/94).
Both players scored an astonishing 34 goals, though the season was longer then – Shearer did it in 42 matches and Cole in 40.
Mohamed Salah came close to that record in 2017/18, scoring 32 times in 36 outings, producing the best Premier League goalscoring season for 13 years.
The Golden Boot winner with the best goals per game ratio in a season is Harry Kane.
England’s captain netted 29 times in just 30 games to win the 2016/17 title, averaging 0.97 goals per game.
Prior to this season, Arsenal and Liverpool had the most Premier League Golden Boot winners, with six each. Coming into this campaign, Man Utd had five while Tottenham and Chelsea were on four.
There were only three players who had scored the most goals in the EPL more than twice.
Shearer won the Golden Boot three times, once with Newcastle and twice with Blackburn Rovers, while Kane’s win in 2020/21 was also his third.
Salah’s success this season means he has now joined that list of three-time winners.
Thierry Henry holds the record, though, having been named the top scorer in the Premier League on four occasions for Arsenal.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez have both won the award, scoring 31 goals in 2007/08 and 2013/14 respectively.
The Premier League began from the 1992/93 season.
Prior to that, Ian Wright was the last highest goalscorer in England when it was the old First Division.
Gary Lineker and Alan Smith were also winners in the 1990s before the league was rebranded.
Premier League: Player stats including appearances, goals and assists
Who are the Premier League top scorers of all time?
Alan Shearer is the highest goalscorer in Premier League history, having ended his career in 2006 with a magnificent 260 goals to his name in England’s top division.
Man Utd legend Wayne Rooney (208) is the only other player who has scored more than 200 EPL goals.
Andy Cole (187), Sergio Aguero (184), Frank Lampard (177) and Thierry Henry (175) are other former Premier League players who sit near the top of the all-time list.
Kane is the highest-scoring active player and had 166 goals when he started this season.
He has long been cited as one of the rare contenders who has a chance to rival Shearer’s record total.
Before 2021/22 began, Robbie Fowler (163), Jermain Defoe (162) and Michael Owen (150) rounded out the 10 players in EPL history who have scored 150 goals or more.
