Top 5 Golden Boot Winners Of The 2000s

Hello and welcome to Match Of The 2000s, your new home for football nostalgia from the noughties. As the year 2000 was twenty years ago, I suppose the decade can now be described as retro so this site (and the accompanying podcast, watch this space) is dedicated to all the footballing thrills and spills that occurred between 2000 and 2009. 

Goals are football's currency and the 2000s saw some tremendous goalscorers ply their trade in the Premier League. For our first article, let's take a look at the five highest scoring Golden Boot winners of the decade. 

(The rules are as follows. Players are only allowed to appear once in the list and if two players are on the same total, goals-to-game ratio will act as a tie-breaker)

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (31 goals for Manchester United, 2007-08 season.) 

What is there left to say about the mercurial Madeiran that hasn't already been said. Ronaldo blew all competition out of the water during the 07/08 campaign with his 31 Premier League strikes forming part of an astonishing overall tally of 42 as he helped Manchester United win a second consecutive league title in addition to a dramatic Champions League final win over Chelsea in Moscow. Ronaldo later went on to win his first Ballon D'or in 2008 and at the end of the 08/09 season became the world's most expensive footballer following an £80,000,000 switch to Real Madrid.

2. Kevin Phillips (30 goals for Sunderland, 1999-2000 season)

The Mackems striker edges into second place over Thierry Henry by virtue of a slightly higher goals-to-game ratio (Phillips netted at a rate of 0.83 goals per game as opposed to Henry's 0.81 ratio recorded in the 03-04 season.). Former non-league player Phillips formed a lethal strike partnership with veteran Irishman Niall Quinn to help Sunderland record an impressive seventh place finish in their first Premier League season since 1996-97. The former Watford man made his international debut during the same season in an away friendly against Hungary. 

3. Thierry Henry (27 goals for Arsenal, 2005-06 season)

Fear not fans of the French superstar, the third of three consecutive Golden Boot winning seasons makes it into our list. While the campaign failed to live up to the high standards of the 'Invincible' season of two years prior, Henry's goals proved vital as Arsenal managed to grab fourth place in the Premier League and deny arch-rivals Tottenham a place in the following season's Champions League. The last three goals of Henry's overall tally of 27 came in a hat-trick to help The Gunners to a 4-2 win over Wigan Athletic in the final ever professional match at Highbury. His third goal on the day having the distinction of being the last goal scored at the famous old ground. 

4. Ruud van Nistelrooy (25 goals for Manchester United, 2002-03 season)

Deadly Dutchman van Nistelrooy made an instant impact on the Premier League upon joining United in 2001, notching 23 league goals and being named PFA Player Of The Year for the 01/02 season. 'Van The Man' continued his prolific form the following season with 25 strikes to help Sir Alex Ferguson's men overhaul Arsenal's eight-point lead and win an eighth Premier League title. Ruud notched three hat-tricks during the season and won the Premier League's Player Of The Year award.

5. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (23 goals for Chelsea, 2000-01 season) 

Chelsea smashed their transfer record in the summer of 2000 to bring former Leeds striker Hasselbaink back to the Premier League from Atletico Madrid. Jimmy Floyd duly repaid his new club's faith with 23 goals from 35 appearances which saw him win his second Golden Boot award to add to his 18 goal haul with the Elland Road club during the 1998-99 season. Hasselbaink's goals helped The Blues to qualification for the UEFA Cup after the Stamford Bridge club finished sixth in the league.

Well that brings our look at some of the decade's most prolific marksmen to a close. I hope you have enjoyed our trip back in time today. For more list articles like this one and information on future blog posts and episodes of the accompanying podcasts please give our Editor/Producer Dan a follow on Twitter @BarkerGray2. 

Episode one of the podcast is hopefully getting recorded next week. The show will be taking a look at the 1999/2000 season and will be our first entry into a regular series taking a season-by-season look back through the decade. Keep your eyes peeled on the socials for more information. 

Until next time, take care.