Kevin Phillips is the only Englishman to win the Golden Boot in the 90s

Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen – all these legendary English strikers have never won the European Golden Boot. The only English holder of this trophy remains Kevin Phillips, a forward who began his career cleaning Shearer’s own boots. In the 1999/2000 season, Phillips unexpectedly scored 30 goals for Sunderland in the Premier League and became Europe’s top scorer. But the story of his triumph is closely intertwined with the controversial system of awarding the Golden Boot in the 90s.

 

Kevin Phillips’ path to the Golden Boot

 

Kevin Phillips was not considered a particularly gifted striker. At Southampton he was considered not good enough and was released at the age of 18. But Phillips suddenly blossomed in 2000, scoring 30 goals in 36 appearances for Sunderland and leading the club to seventh place in the Premier League. This was incredible, given that just five years earlier he had played as a defender for non-professional Baldock Town and was unknown even to 1win app canada.

Phillips only got his chance in professional football in 1994, when he was signed by Watford for £10,000. But his progress was interrupted by an injury that sidelined him for two seasons. Only Sunderland showed confidence in the striker, paying 325 thousand pounds for him.

 

In the 1999/2000 season, the duo of Phillips and Neill Quinn performed well in the Premier League. One of the brightest moments was Kevin’s hat-trick against Derby County (5:0) and a beautiful goal in the match against Chelsea (4:1). In total, Phillips scored 30 goals, becoming the top scorer in the Premier League and Europe. He was even included in the England team for Euro 2000, although he hardly played there.

 

The controversial Golden Boot system in the 90s

 

But Phillips’ triumph was not clear-cut. Under the new Golden Boot system introduced by European Sports Media in 1996, 2 points were awarded for each goal in Europe’s top 5 leagues, and less in other leagues. So, Phillips’ 30 goals brought him 60 points, and Mario Jardela’s 38 goals from the Portuguese league brought him only 57 points (1.5 per goal).

Until 1990, Adidas handled the awards, but he didn’t trust the minor league statistics. For example, Darko Pancev from Red Star with 34 goals in 1991 was left without an award. After Adidas left, five seasons passed without a Golden Boot being awarded at all, although players such as Ally McCoist and David Taylor scored more than 40 goals a season.

 

The new ESM and Adidas odds system favored the stars of the top leagues. Taylor’s 43 goals in 1994 would now be worth just 43 points – the same as 22 in the Premier League. And Jardel, even scoring 42 goals in 2002, was left without the Golden Boot.

 

It turns out that with such a system in the 90s, the award could have been won by Ian Wright (1991), Andy Cole (1994) and Alan Shearer (1995). But in the 1999/2000 season, Shearer was let down by problems with coaches and injuries, which is why he scored “only” 23 goals. Other European stars – Shevchenko, Batistuta, Ronaldo – also failed to keep up with Phillips.

 

Phillips himself never reached such heights again, beginning to change clubs in the lower leagues. But his achievement – 30 goals in a season in the Premier League – could only be repeated among Englishmen by Harry Kane in 2018.

 

The story of Kevin Phillips is a shining example of unexpected triumph in an era of controversial Golden Boot rules. This is a reminder that sometimes the laurels of the best scorer go not to star super forwards, but to honest hard workers who were in the right place at the right time. Even if later their names are undeservedly forgotten.