Online Reporter
Mugove Chigada
Deputy Sports Editor
MAGICAL Tawanda Maswanhise may need to push for a move to a top Championship side to best position himself for a possible solid entry into the English Premier League.
His 10 league goals for Motherwell and 15 in all competitions so far have made him one of the best in the Scottish Premiership.
If the former Leicester player is to go on and become top scorer by the end of the season, a close look at Scottish Premiership golden boot winners for the past five seasons perhaps gives a glimpse of what the future may hold for the Zimbabwe international.
For the record, in the past five seasons no golden boot award winner from Scotland has made startling noise in world football after a transfer. The 2020/21 golden boot winner Odsonne Edouard, who scored 18 goals with Celtic, joined Premier League side Crystal Palace the following season, and was there for at least three seasons, with a loan move to Leicester in-between.
Edouard is now with high-flying French Ligue 1 side Lens where he has so far scored seven goals, a contrast with his Crystal Palace stint where he was not the main man.
In 2021/22 season, there were two joint top scorers on 13 goals, Regan Charles-Cook of Ross County and Giorgos Giakoumakis of Celtic. The former went on to join KAS Eupen and is back in Scotland with Motherwell while the latter is now at PAOK, playing in Europe.
Kyogo Furuhashi’s 27 goals with Celtic in the 2022/23 season opened doors to French Ligue 1 with Stade Rennais before a move to Birmingham City in the Championship.
The 2023/24 golden boot winner Lawrence Shankland, on 24 goals, is still with Hearts while last season’s top scorer, Cyriel Dessers, who was at Rangers, is now at Panathinaikos FC in Greece. Apart from the huge transfer fees that characterised their moves, the top scorers experienced mixed fortunes.
And this is also against the background that other top scorers, not necessarily golden boot award winners from the same league, have had better fortunes after leaving the Scottish Premiership. Given that trend, it is only reasonable that if Maswanhise is aiming for a successful EPL entry, his first port of call may have to be the Championship sides like Coventry, Middlesbrough, Ipswich or even back to Leicester. That, however, takes away nothing from Maswanhise’s current form. His scoring form has made him one of the favourites to end as top goal scorer in the Scottish Premiership, and with Zimbabwe’s limited appearances, he has also been magical.
His goal on Saturday in Motherwell’s 1-1 draw with Hibernian at Easter Road, his 15th in all competitions this season, shows he has been unstoppable. Kieron Bowie’s leveller spoiled the day for the Zimbabwe international, but it was already expected Hibernian would be difficult in front of a sell-out Easter Road.
With the hosts missing key player Elliot Watt, Maswanhise’s strike made the situation worse as they had to chase the game.
The draw kept Motherwell fourth and well positioned to finish the season on a high.
“We didn’t outperform Hibs today, it was in many ways an even game. The number of chances were quite even. “At 1-1 we had a really big moment to decide the game, which I didn’t feel they had. It was two teams who invested a lot in the game,” said Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou.
In the league, Maswanhise has scored 10 goals and provided two assists in 19 games.
That translates to 0.59 goals for every 90 minutes. His stats of a goal in every 152 minutes make him one of the most prolific players in that league. Among the top scorers, only Benjamin Nygen (nine goals) of Celtic, with a goal in every 133 minutes, and Maswanhise teammate Apostolos Stamatelopoulos (six goals), with a goal every 141 minutes, are better. But that Maswanhise is now level on 10 goals with Lawrence Shankland of Hearts, despite missing a couple of games while at the AFCON finals in Morocco with Zimbabwe, supports his growing reputation.
Among the top scorers, he also has the highest goal conversion rate of 26 percent. With only Celtic’s Nygen closer at 20 percent. And among the top 10 scorers in the league, he has the second-best shot accuracy at 51 percent, behind J McGrath of Hibernian.
Scottish Premiership Golden Boot
Winners — Where are they now?
2024/2025 Season: Cyriel Dessers at Rangers (18 goals) — Panathinaikos
2023/2024 Season: Lawrence Shankland at Hearts (24 goals) — Hearts
2022/2023 Season: Kyogo Furuhashi at Celtic (27 goals) — Stade Rennais, Birmingham City
2021/2022 Season: Regan Charles-Cook at Ross County (13 goals) — KAS Eupen, Motherwell Giorgos Giakoumakis at Celtic (13 goals) — Atlanta, CD Cruz, PAOK
2020/21 Season: Odsonne Edouard at Celtic (18 goals) — Crystal Palace, Leicester, Lens
