Bouanga, Acosta and the rest of the 2024 MLS Golden Boot candidates

The Golden Boot. It is the most ubiquitous award in soccer because it is the most simple. The player with the most goals across the span of a competition figuratively and then literally possesses the Golden Boot.

In Major League Soccer, predicting the Golden Boot winner is a near impossibility but it’s always intriguing to take a look at the gang of candidates ahead of a new season.

Here is a closer look at the upcoming Golden Boot race:

The Contenders

MLS has never had a back-to-back Golden Boot winner but last year’s champion Dénis Bouanga will be looking to change that. The Gabon international’s 20 goals topped the charts last year, beating out the likes of MVP Luciano Acosta and Newcomer of the Year Giorgos Giakoumakis on 17 goals. Eventual MLS Cup Champion Cucho Hernández was right there with 16 goals himself. Nashville’s Hany Mukhtar and Vancouver’s Brian White finished with 15 goals.

All six of these superstars will have their sights on the Golden Boot in 2024 and each one has a quality supporting cast to aid them with chance creation.

Acosta and Mukhtar are chance creators as well as goalscorers which is why they’re the last two league MVP’s, but it also means their duties are split. Cucho too provides assists by dropping underneath but has a larger goalscoring focus in his game as a pure #9. His partnership with 2020 MLS Golden Boot winner Diego Rossi is also still growing after the Uruguayan replaced Lucas Zelarayan as the second star in Columbus. 

White and Giakoumakis are all about the goals but both are at a significant disadvantage without being their team’s primary penalty taker. If either had scored as many penalties as some of their counterparts in 2023, they would’ve won the Golden Boot. Bouanga was the second-choice penalty taker last season behind Carlos Vela, limiting his additions, but with Vela yet to re-sign with LAFC, the reigning Golden Boot winner becomes the primary penalty taker and probably the favorite to repeat.

Lionel Messi will have reservations about that statement having won 23 Golden Boots in his career including by scoring 10 goals in last season’s League Cup (which there is no actual award for). The only reason he isn’t the Golden Boot favorite is that his teammate, Luis Suarez, and himself a 7-time Golden Boot winner including in the Eredivisie, Premier League, and La Liga will also be in the running. Their inherent competition with each other diminishes each other’s chances but they will always be contenders with their world class ability.

The Newbies

A few teams spent big in the offseason to bolster their striker position. FC Dallas and the Chicago Fire made particularly big splashes on Petar Musa ($9.7 million + $3.3 million add-ons) and Hugo Cuypers ($12 million + $2 million add-ons) respectively. Both will be expected to compete for the Golden Boot.

Petar Musa will be part of arguably the best attacking trio in MLS when Alan Velasco returns from injury. Until then, Paul Arriola is a mighty fine “backup” to Velasco and will provide Musa with a host of chances alongside Jesus Ferreira. With an adjusted system employing wing-backs, Musa should have crosses coming in from everywhere.

Cuypers won the 2022-23 Golden Boot in Belgium with 27 goals in 39 appearances but only scored six goals in the final 20 matches of last season. His adjustment to MLS will be at the heart of his impact. Outside of Cuypers, Chicago has invested in MLS experience in the likes of Kellyn Acosta, Andrew Gutman, and Chase Gasper. The stable rebuild has arrived with chance creation for Cuypers expected to come from Xherdan Shaqiri and Brian Gutiérrez.

Orlando City also made a major striker acquisition in Luis Muriel (though paying a considerably smaller $1 million fee) from Atalanta, fully believing they had a deal done for Duncan McGuire to head to Blackburn Rovers. McGuire’s transfer dramatically falling through provides Oscar Pareja with a lineup dilemma, having two starting strikers in the squad, and also diminishes Muriel’s chances of competing for the Golden Boot. Facundo Torres probably hogs too many of the goals anyway.

The Dark Horses

Daniel Gazdag will always be a dark horse for the MLS Golden Boot because nobody ever expects him to win it yet he always comes close. Nobody’s campaign is more dependent upon penalties but lucky for him nobody is awarded more penalties than the Union. In 2023 they led the league with 12 penalties awarded with Gazdag scoring on all 12 occasions.

Alan Pulido scored six goals in the month of June last season and another three in July. When he gets hot there is no stopping him. Sporting KC was rolling towards the end of last season and will have high expectations in 2024, headed by Pulido’s goalscoring abilities.

In 2021, Chicho Arango scored 14 goals in 17 MLS games to capture the Newcomer of the Year award in just one half of the season. He couldn’t quite do the same in Salt Lake City but his four goals in 13 matches (nine starts) keep him around as a Golden Boot dark horse. Arango has shown the ability to be an elite finisher in this league. The question is whether RSL can provide him with enough chances.

Teemu Pukki has a similar story. In only 14 MLS appearances, he already has 10 goals to his name including a four-goal performance in the penultimate match of 2023. That’s a better pace than the actual Golden Boot winner had last season. With a full season and Emanuel Reynoso providing the assists, Pukki should be more than a dark horse. Somehow he isn’t.

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