The English top flight has seen many a goalscorer. From Jimmy Greaves in the 60's to Ian Rush in the 80's and of course the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Theirry Henry in the 2000s, great strikers have always been a part of the league.
Sometimes there has been more than one prolific goalscorer during the same period. These rivalries were fueled even more when the teams for which the players were a part of were competing with each other for silverware or just their status in their Premier League
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So the importance of finishing as the top scorer in the league became not just a matter of personal pride but also helping their respective teams achieve greatness. With that in mind here are 5 memorable golden boot rivalries.
5) Alan Shearer – Robbie Fowler
Alan Shearer is one of the greatest goalscorers the Premier League has ever seen. The Englishman scored 260 goals since the inception of the league in 1992 and is still top of the all-time scorers list.
Despite his exploits, Shearer has only one Premier League title to his name. That was during the 1994-95 season when he won the trophy with Blackburn and also finished as top scorer. He’s won the EPL golden boot three times in his career and had many strikers with whom he competed with every season.
But for two years he had a rivalry with Robbie Fowler for the award. The Liverpool striker was still young but looked like a natural when scoring goals and Shearer was also in brilliant form. The first season when Rovers won the league Shearer beat him by a comfortable margin of 9 goals, with Fowler’s team finishing in 4th.
In the 1995-96 season, the competition was much closer. Both Liverpool and Blackburn were competing with Manchester United for the title. United eventually became the champions with Liverpool finishing third and Blackburn 7th.
Shearer though edged out Fowler once again for the award by a margin of just 3 goals. Shearer scored 31 to Fowler’s 28.
4) Andy Cole – Dwight Yorke
Cole and Yorke formed one of the most formidable attacking duos in English football. Alex Ferguson saw how good Yorke was at Aston Villa and decided to sign him in 1998. In his very first season, he became the top scorer for the club.
Andy Cole was a part of the United team from the 1994-95 season. He was a good striker but he never became the highest scorer in the League while he was at the Red Devils. He did win the golden boot in the 1993-94 season while he was at Newcastle United.
So Ferguson decided to pair him up with Yorke and it proved to be a master class. From 1998 to 2000 United reigned supreme in England as well as in Europe. The two strikers were scoring for fun as their goals helped the club win the Premier League and the Champions League.
Yorke’s goals sparked Cole into form and he started to score regularly. So much so that the two players had a small rivalry going on between them. In the 1998/99 season, Yorke just about edged out Cole to the Golden Boot while in 1999/2000 Neither won it but Yorke scored 20 while Cole had 19.
3) Harry Kane – Sergio Aguero
Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero isn’t yet a rivalry that has become the talk of the league but it certainly looks like it will blossom into one that will be talked about for years to come. Aguero has established himself as one of the best strikers in the world during the last few seasons.
The Argentine joined City in 2011 and had a debut season that he will never forget. The forward scored the goal that secured City the title in dramatic fashion on the very last day of the season.
Harry Kane emerged as young forward last year and became the first Tottenham player since Gary Lineker to score more than 30 goals in a season across all competitions. Kane managed 21 goals last campaign in the Premier League as Aguero won the Golden Boot for his tally of 26.
This season Kane inspired Spurs to mount a title challenge that eventually ended in disappointment. He currently leads the charts with 25 while his counterpart at City is on 24. If Kane can hold on until the last game he will be crowned as the top scorer in the EPL.
2) Gary Lineker – Ian Wright
Gary Lineker and Ian Wright have a wonderful rivalry on-screen while they appear on Match of the Day program for the BBC network. Lineker hosts MOTD 1 while Wright occasionally appears as a pundit on the show.
They were also rivals during their footballing days as the two competed for the Golden boot honor. Wright and Lineker both finished with 15 goals a piece during the 1990-91 season when Wright was playing for Palace and Lineker was with Tottenham.
Wright moved to Arsenal in 1991 after playing 8 games for Palace. This was the season when the rivalry peaked as both players were now derby rivals as well. Ian Wright managed to narrowly beat Gary Lineker to the Golden Boot that season scoring 29 goals to Lineker's 28.
Arsenal finished as top scorers that year but they could only manage 4th in the table. Tottenham on the other hand, ended up 20 points below their bitter rivals in 15th position. Wright and Lineker still exchange banter on camera with one of their recent dialogues occurring during a Champions League night.
Here’s the clip:
1) Thierry Henry – Ruud Van Nistelrooy
The Henry-Nistelrooy rivalry is no doubt the most memorable and the most talked about rivalry in the Premier League. Both strikers were absolutely vital to their club’s ambitions and competed for the Golden Boot award for 4 out of the 5 years the two played in England at the same time.
Henry arrived at Arsenal in 1999 as a young Frenchman who had a lot of potential. Wenger converted the winger into a striker and it proved to be a masterclass. Ferguson was also in search of a top striker and purchased Van Nistelrooy in 2001.
In that season, Henry finished as top scorer with 24 goals as Arsenal won the league and Nistelrooy managed just 1 less with 23. The next season it was the United man who outdid his rival by claiming the golden boot and winning the Premier League title
But in 2003-04, there was absolutely no contest as Henry scored 30 goals, 10 more than Nistelrooy could manage and claimed the title with Arsenal going the entire season unbeaten. Nistelrooy was injured for most of the 04-05 season but they renewed their bout in the very next campaign.
Chelsea won the title in 2006 but Henry and Van Nistelrooy finished as Number 1 and 2 in the scoring charts. It truly was a special rivalry simply because of the longevity and the stakes that the two players were playing for.
