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The European Golden Boot (also called the European Golden Shoe) is awarded to the top goalscorer in a European top-flight season.
Since the 1996-97 season, a co-efficient system has been used to account for the difference in competition in various leagues. That essentially means the Golden Boot winner need not be the most prolific scorer across all European leagues in a season.
First introduced by L'Equipe, the Golden Boot award is now awarded by the European Sports Media. Since 2001-02 (Mario Jardel for Sporting Lisbon), the award has been won by players plying their trade in Europe's top five leagues.
While a lot of world-class players have won the prestigious award, a few others have failed to win it. On that note, here's a look at the top five attackers who never won the European Golden Boot award:
#5 Miroslav Klose
Miroslav Klose is the record goalscorer in FIFA World Cup history, with 16 goals in four different editions of the competition. The 2014 FIFA World Cup winner enjoyed a less prolific club career, though, scoring 121 Bundesliga goals in over 300 appearances in the competition.
Klose won his only Torjegarkanone award in 2005-06, scoring 25 goals. However, that wasn't enough to land him the European Golden Boot award, as the 43-year-old finished six goals shy of winner Luca Toni.
Klose wouldn't come close to winning the Golden Boot award again. He also spent five seasons in Serie A, where his most prolific campaign (2012-13) saw him score 15 goals.
#4 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is still going strong at the ripe old age of 40. Ibrahimovic has won league titles in four different countries and has scored goals galore for every team he has played for.
The AC Milan striker recently created history, becoming the oldest player to score a Serie A brace. However, Ibrahimovic's effort went in vain as Milan slumped to their first league reverse of the season in a seven-goal thriller against Fiorentina.
Ibrahimovic netted 38 Ligue 1 goals for PSG in the 2015-16 season, a club for which he scored over 100 goals in the competition.
However, he didn't come close to winning that season's Golden Boot award, as Luis Suarez aggregated 80 points by scoring 40 league goals for Barcelona. Ibrahimovic's Golden Boot chances were also hindered, as Ligue 1 had a coefficient of 1.5 back then.
The Swedish striker has scored most of his league goals (152) in Serie A. Ibrahimovic has also plied his trade in the Eredivisie, Premier League and La Liga.
#3 Karim Benzema
Karim Benzema is one of the most prolific strikers to have not won the European Golden Boot award as yet. But that could change if Benzema keeps up his imperious exploits this season until the end of the campaign.
After operating in the shadow of his illustrious teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema has come into his own in the last three seasons. Since Ronado's departure in the summer of 2018, Benzema has netted at least 20 league goals in each of his three campaigns.
This season, the 33-year-old has taken things up a notch. He has already racked up ten league goals and seven assists, powering Real Madrid to the La Liga summit. Recently, Benzema brought up his 200th goal in the Spanish top flight.
The 2021 Nations League winner currently trails this season's Golden Boot race leader Robert Lewandowski by four goals.
#2 Alessandro Del Piero
Alessandro Del Piero is one of the finest Italian strikers in history. The 2006 FIFA World Cup winner enjoyed a successful club career. He scored nearly 200 goals in the Italian top flight, all of them for Juventus.
During his 18 campaigns in Serie A, the 47-year-old registered 20-goal campaigns twice during his career. However, on both occasions (1997-98 and 2007-08), Del Piero finished well short of the Golden Boot winner.
The six-time Serie A winner is one of only five players to score a hat-trick in a UEFA Champions League semi-final. Del Piero also won the Champions League in the 1995-96 season.
With 188 Serie A strikes, Del Piero is just outside the top ten all-time top-scorers in the competition.
#1 Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer is arguably the most lethal goalscorer to have never won the European Golden Boot award.
The all-time Premier League top-scorer (260 goals) is the only player in competition history to score 30 goals in three consecutive seasons. Nobody else has done it even in consecutive campaigns.
Nevertheless, on all three occasions, he missed out on the Golden Boot award to non-top-five league players, who scored more league goals than Shearer. Those were the days when the coefficient system for the Golden Boot award was not in place.
Shearer is the only player in Premier League history to score over 250 goals and net over 100 times for two clubs. However, he only won the competition once (with Blackburn Rovers in 1995).
Shearer was also a prolific scorer in international football, netted 30 times in over 60 appearances for England.
